3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Sensations Than a Bag of Synthesized Skittles, March 21, 2003
This review is from: Critical Mass 2 (Audio CD)
After picking up an armada of sounds to listen to from Metropolis, I decided I needed more bands to dive into and more sounds to sample. Accordingly, I began tracking down the samplers that Metropolis puts out at least once a year (but normally twice a year, under one name or another) and listening to the things that they arranged on them. Something I discovered through this was that (1) I really like the place they've taken electronic/EBM/industrial/dancefloor music to and (2) that I really enjoy the way they construct their listening vices into such wondrous packages. A little of everything is always included in those portions of listening pleasure, from the heavier worlds of electronic disdain (although these are more noticeable on the Electropolis releases that on Critical Mass) to the more somber EBM ballads that make the mind dance, and this actually does what a sampler should do. it provides a person of an overview of the label and the types of sounds it carries.
On this release, I found myself actually fond of the Dos Ich release (not normally a band for me) and the Suicide Commando sounds (again, not normally in my EBM fields of play). Both are a tad on the side of rudimentary vocals, not really to my liking most of the time, but these two songs were actually pretty good this time around. Funker Vogt's Under Deck is good here, but I like the album song better because the remix rends the beat a little while playing with it. Still, a song about being aboard a vessel in the midst of warfare is fine, and better still when its set to sounds that capture the event in a strangely understandable way. Velvet Acid Christ's contribution was also really good, showcasing the band when it was still in the dark forms of drug-related recording and not yet outside of this box, giving the listener something to enjoy as well. Haujobb's Subsonic is less experimental than most of their normal work and more electronic, keeping a high BPM count and actually constructing a masterful combination of beats and lyrics, Informatik's Oblivion is one of the turns in the road that took the band away from the voxed lyrics it was so well known for in the past while keeping a more growling sound to their EBM sounds that are a bit more dancefloor oriented than before, and Icon of Coil's release is good, but their first album actually produced a more thought-provoking look at anger and all its many formations in the mind. Wolfsheim, sometimes compared to Peter Murphy in vocals but unjustly so, is always at the top of their game and anything they provide will have qualities in it that are commendable (although a bit slower paced for some people and the opera mixtures in some songs a bit too over the EBM top), Fictional is a Funker Vogt sideproject that lets them play a little more with sounds outside of warfare and is more electronic than harsh in this song Blue Lights, and Mesh's Because it Scares Me is one that is slowly paced but that is worthy of a listen as well.
In the realm of samplers, I'd have to give this Critical Mass release a hefty approval rating because it has some many songs that can be listened to over and over again. While not exactly introducing me to many bands I hadn't heard of, it worked as a preview at the time and still finds itself thrown into my player when I need to capture elements of some bands but don't want to bring 14 discs along for the ride. For people that enjoy Metropolis and their brand of entertainment, it is a worthy by and one I would recommend checking out.
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