Customer Reviews

Contempt

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this CD back in '99 and loved it! What a great first release! Lush soundscapes, pounding beats, smart lyrics, great samples (but not over-burdened with too many) and every song sounds unique.

Failure was also an outstanding release. Heartbreaking lyrics, but also full of hope. Addendum is good remix cd, great extra track "Let me be your armor". Defiance was a bit disappointed in comparison to these previous releases. But when your expectations are set so high, what can you expect.

As the years have gone by, I keep going back to this CD! Anthem, Surface, Coward, Bi-polar, Pages, Purgatory and Never Forgive are outstanding!

Don't overlook this CD as an older release! You may like it just as much (or more than) Failure.

I heard Failure before Contempt, but this album keeps haunting my headphones. Each track builds a mosaic of electronic bliss. Sometimes dark and sometimes fleeting. I return to this cd often when I am at a loss for what to listen to, it's that wonderful. Tom Shear is a music fan and it shows intensely through his work. Each release up to and including Defiance show growth and an ongoing faith in his craft. His influences shine through (see his messageboard on the main web page for a list in many a post) and he is quite possibly one of the friendliest guys in the biz. He loves to share his thoughts and ideas fluidly with his fans and that is heroic in this music genre. I will maintain a love for A23 and Tom no doubt will continue to be a prominent force to be reckoned with in the ever changing sea of electronic music.

while this cd is good.. it feels very repetetive. after i listen to anthem (track 1) i find it hard to listen to anymore.. while each song is good.. it just feels like its the same song over and over again just with different lyrics. Tom has improved this slightly on Failure.. in which there was a couple stand out tracks. While he has incredible music making abilities... he needs to make his vocals lifting a little.. he sounds like a robot and i'm not even sure if you could call his vocals singing.. more like talking. anyways, a good EBM never-the-less

As a long time fan of Delerium and a listener of the associated 'Front Line Assembley' and a fan of electronica and industrial sounds I purchased this debut album from the mind of Tom Shear. 'Assemblage 23' is a sole artist opinion and Tom has created a vast plethora of ambient and hight industrialised electronica. I had to listen to this album twice to fully appreciate the workings of this artist and found I enjoyed the varied sounds and tempo of the music. I loved the way the lyrics were played out robotic by Tom Shear. It is the debut album for this artist and I see a bright future for Tom Shear in the industrial music scene. He has much skill as Leeb & Fulber. The best song is 'Purgatory' and the last 3 tracks are remixes that will make it on the dance club list sooner or later.

After buying this 13-track release I found myself quite enthralled, initially unable to peel myself away from it for any amount of time. Its was a strange thing, too, finding an album whose boundaries stretched beyond the confines of what I had expected, its content an intercourse of rich thoughts and a skill that defied the weak comparisons it oftentimes wears. Still, after following up with Tom Shear's other Assemblage 23 albums, I can see why that would be. With a keen grasp of sound engineering (not to be confused with EBM originality) and the lyrical understanding that typifies-and oftentimes surpasses-what is viewed as greatness, he's actually made three worthwhile releases in a row, earning both my respect and my money as he perfects his abilities to craft a sonically emotional landscape. On this album he's sometimes thoughtful and brooding, sometimes seethes with ambitions wrought by anger and dismay, and sometimes he's simply the provider of a montage of thoughts and ideals rarely conveyed in five-minute intervals. These all come together to spark something wonderful, a seed that only gets better as it grows.

Still, taking my word for it is only that. So, provided below is a sample of the lyrical content on the song "Anthem," torn asunder from the sounds that carry it:
We are bore of stone
and etched by wind
Cast aside to live or die
We are the pawns in our own game
Like Refugees
of silent wars
We step on ever-shifting ground
Promoting what we undermine
For countless days
We walked alone
Directionless and Vulnerable
Sitting targets wearing smiles
The flags we wave
are set adrift
to warm the bones of infant dreams
even as our present is set ablaze
The tinderbox
we sit upon
Decays in churning mists of fog
And crumbles down into the sea.

After all these years, this is the A23 CD I keep revisiting. The structure is fairly minimal, the vocals are ever-so-slightly distorted and gritty, and the lyrics alternate between metaphor and blatant anger seamlessly. Overall, there are few albums that can match the sort of raw power and aggression contained in this little gem, and unfortunately Tom Shear kinda took the whole A23 enterprise steadily downhill from here. If you're a big fan of his newer work, i.e. Meta or Storm, then you probably won't like this -- there are no grandiose, sweeping synths, no upbeat lyrics to speak of (unless you count the manic half of Bi-Polar, whose happiness is purely disingenuous), no melodies that would sound like they belong in any club these days. Contempt is too strong for many people, but it's clear that this is where Shear's best work lies.

Contempt is Tom Shear's first release under the Assemblage 23 name. There are a variety of styles of industrial/EBM which are used here, probably due to experimenting in which direction he wanted to take the project. Anthem is almost reminisent of VNV Nation's style, but other tracks develop a sound of their own which are certainly original. I knew after listening to this album that Assemblage 23 would be an artist to keep an eye on. The production of Contempt contains somewhat of a tinny sound, but since this is a first release it's nothing to complain about. The best tracks in my opinion are Anthem, Surface, and Purgatory, and I'm sure they will easily make their way onto club playlists. For those who have not heard Assemblage 23 before: Think of the lyrical tone of Nine Inch Nails mixed with the clear vocals and fast high energy electronic music of VNV Nation. If you are a fan of industrial/EBM, be sure to pick up this lesser known album now. Also, don't forget to check out Assemblage 23's newest album, Failure, which is even better.

This is great industrial, and quickly made A23 one of my favorite groups. The followup, Failure, is a must have too! Don't pass this group by!!

This is my least favorite album by A23. Than again this is Tom Shear's first album, so it's not so hard to see why it isn't his best work.