Customer Reviews

Improvised.Electronic.Device.

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have to start by saying I haven't wrote a single review in possibly 6 years, or more...and this album got me to break that. 'Improvised. Electronic. Device.' is an incredible punch to the throat musically. It comes flying right out of the gate from the very beginning and basically never lets up until the (very nice, btw) more introspective instrumental at the end, 'Downfall'.

Take a few moments from Hard Wired, Millennium, Artificial Soldier and toss them into a blender with new elements as well and there you have it. Very abrasive and fast-moving album! Ideal for marathoning action games, scorching rubber down the highway or hitting the pads at the gym, it's up to you. And also, the track featuring Grandpa Al (Ministry)is really awesome, that team-up was FAR overdue!

Great cd.

I knew FLA in 1992 (pretty late), but I got the whole albums, singles, whatever. Being in Southamerica and worse yet, in Santiago de Chile, made impossible get to their releases fast or in a constant basis. Anyway I'been following el Leebo and company for years now (almost 20) and they have never dissapointed me, but not filling me up with the same reprocessed product, instead, they've evolved everytime I hear a new release and force me to grow a step further. It doesn't mean that I can't criticize them, moreover, after 20 years hearing them you won't forgive so easily the "let downs" of your fav groups. Now to the review.

1- IED: Great name. Starts with a kind of horn or asiatic sound to it, something low and wide and then the psycho sounds begins to push through... incredible! Then the drums start, like in GUN from TNI but with CASTANETS all over. Then the whole thing burst in layers, a guitar punching through the middle and the half heard voice of Bill... then comes the chorus kind of less worked than the rest of the song to me but good. Then again starts the psycho keys between the punch, the guitar, the voice, the four thousand layers. The only backdrop could be the the 5:20 to 5:34 where the voice stays alone and for me, sounds too pop. Good but not the best.

2- Angriff: A soft melody starts with some laser swords enhancing the soundscape. The main melody sounds like a very "worked upon guitar", anyway great, looks like the songs is going to be something like Infra Red Combat, but it's getting filled with brass and then a short silence and WOW, an electric guitar but nothing like Millenium (great album anyway), but more like Hard Wired guitars, punchy but softer and incredible well mixed with the surrounding sounds. If you heard Dissension from Artificial Soldier, these guitars are BETTER MIXED YET. Then the angry Lyrics that el Leebo usually spits out in these cases. The voice is articulated like some whispered songs from the Epitaph days, but the prechorus really kills you. The vocoded voice gets through your mind like they were orders, scrambled with a guitar doing the pattern of the voice. Just for that this song is a new step ahead for FLA. Then the chorus, FLAish style, some german words but this time the voice turn into three or more doing the same at different tones, and some choral voice drifted in a militar fashion gives the finishing touchs to what you think would be this great song. But then, a sound space like in EMP times, giving a go to a sad verse, accompanied with the initial guitar chords, simply superb. Finally recovers to the chorus and ends with a phrase and the military drifting "eyyyyaaaaah"... awesome. Another one for the Industrial Halls of Fame. Easy the greatest of the album and maybe one of the best ever from Bill.

3- Hostage: New soundscape added some brass very compressed in the silencing cuts, then a bass buzzing behind your head with a melody repeating allover til... you get to the chorus without voice, and sounds very good. Then verse and now chorus with voice. Sadly, the chorus is good but the finishing "AAAAs" from Bill are like in EMP era songs that ended in those "AAAAs" too pop-solution. This songs looks like if it was from an older album recycling process, but was well processed and in the end the "fear" chorus does a good addition. Good.

4- Release: The initial atmosphere is awesome, a distant sound protrude through the drums to leave place for some new soundscape and then, an oldie but goldie chorus with a guitar that enhances the experience and saves the classic FLA chorus giving it new life. Then a vibrating sound gets in the middle transforming again the soundscape and then becoming a new song when the whole thing becomes almost epic/orchestral in the layering. The ending is just as great when the guitars take command in between to dissolve into a new keyboard melody. Great song even with the typical chorus.

5- Shifting Through the Lens: Starts with a electronica styled intro (very Flavour of the Weak) and then adds up some drums and blips and things to arrive into a sonic wall so clear and pure you'll want to tell someone go listen to it with you. The vocals are going TNI styled but they sounded more perfect, the texture is machine 2010, metalized but as clear as one can expect from a Terminator v.2010. The pauses are great, leaving room for the ear to delight inside a soft but fluid melody. Bridging to the choruses, very FLAish style, Bill sterylizing something and singing just great. The final is precise. Very good.

6- Laws of Deception: Starts like Gun from TNI, but the guitars overcomes everything, almost like... Millenium style, indeed the beginning and ryhtmic is just like Surface Patterns but the chorus is stairs up from the basal note, introducing a keyboard that fixes any lack of "something" you could feel in some places. And then the kind of clavichord for the bridge that, then you realise, it's been there the whole time but in a low layer... then the ending metal... Good song, could grow on you.

7- Pressure Wave: Again the tribal drums... WOW and then a explosion of asyncoped guitar and drums, the voice distorted and some atmosphere here and there. The chorus FLA styled with a twist... Very good for a strange song. This is far the most metalsound song from the album. Even the chorus and keyboards all over simply adds to the feeling... this could be easily an experiment from a metal point of view. Not sure what the "purists" will think, for me is great and simple! Good addition to the arsenal.

8- Afterlife: Diablo... yes, the game Diablo that's the beginning. Then some keyboards and the punchy bass. The voice enters and is GREAT!!! soft and enveloping, "what are we fighting for?" is the new motto... Then the strings soft and clear, between the soundscape enhances the sad feeling and the overall theme. If you want you could cry... this song is GREAT, and easily could grow while you listen to it and could become in a classic in the way of Infra Red Combat. The only cheesy thing is the "what will be, will be" AGH!! but hey, Bill Leeb has his cliches we are used to. GREAT! GREAT! Another hall of fame.

9- Stupidity: Well if Pressure Wave sounded the most metal structured song, then this is the most industrial metal typical song, sounds like Ministry (obvious, Jurgen is all over) mixed with FLA! hahaha sorry it's like we sometimes dreamed of but like 8 years later. Maybe in another reality but this is the song that I would have keep it to me and not for the album. I read somewhere that Jurgensen did the lyrics... Now I know why Ministry stopped. So so...

10- Downfall: Astronautic transmissions at the beginning then the atmosphere takes control and the Imperial forges from a wasted planet are invaded in a carnage by the Tyranids while the battle is heroic. Doesn't matter, the Tyranid forces overpower the Imperial ones and while the forges still work on, the human inhabitants are obliterated from the planet. Maybe an escape pod is launched at the last minute with a babe inside. The pod flies away from the apocalyptic scape of the planet. Then... the astronautic transmissions. The song is about the earth and the clean energy, but don't know why, reminded me of Warhammer40K. GREAT GREAT GREAT. Amazing song. Hall of fame.

Resume: The album is great, with good songs that could grow in time, but has a couple of time wasters for my taste. Is strange that IED and STTL, the titles for the album and single were not more catchiers but there's another songs doing this part so nothing's missing, everything's in place and even 3 songs stand out immediately and with enough merits to be completely satisfied.

3 hall of fame.

2 Great ones.

4 Good enough.

1 forgettable.

This could become easily another good addition to FLA's catalogue, don't know yet if it's the new landmark for FLA but surely this is the FLA we were waiting for, with the edge and clever sound we missed from days gone.

"Shifting Through The Lens", the album's first single released two weeks ago set the bar high and I will tell you that it was the perfect set up for what was to come. Each track on the single explored different concepts and styles very much like this album does. The opening title track is a mindblower! "I.E.D." starts subtle and breaks into a creepy textured smathering of loops and kicks and is just amazing! "Angriff" (also the second track on the single) is probably some of Bill's best writing in years, add a superbly vocalized german chorus with a pulse-pounding guitar thrum and...- oh and by the way the vocals on this album are brilliantly processed in FLA fashion - so many times I caught myself giddy with excitement and actually saying aloud, "wow, that's brilliant!" Now, "Hostage" will be every FLA fanboy's electro dream track - yeah it is. "Release" breaks in to familiar guitar gnashing "Hard-wired" territory. "Shifting Through The Lens" is one of the best and most danceable singles in many years - not unlike "Columbian Necktie" from "FLAvour of the Weak" circa 1997. "Laws of Deception" and "Pressure Wave" wreak more havoc with guitar hits and Leeb's mastery of neurotic vox. Then wack! upside the head come two obligatory and opposing tracks. "Afterlife" is an opus with gorgeous bass lines and omg might I say it beautiful vocals. Now the standout track and for many good reasons. Some fans will be either blatantly ecstatic or loathsome for the fact that Al "Alien" Jourgansen who needs no intro has lended his talents to the track "Stupidity". I for one am impressed with the track. It's pissed off and awesomely devoted to the creators of the defunct and sorely missed "Wax Trax" Label. It does capture the feeling of how industrial music back then really was arguous and honest, not pretentous and copious. It really sends a message to the ruiners of the world today that only Al could ala FLA collab. "Downfall" is like the soundtrack from another planet. Not quite as brilliant (in my opinion) as "Endless Void" the nine minute extravaganza from "Shifting Through The Lens" single, but stands on it's own as the physical cd's closer. The new line up is really strong. Live this will be an eventful show! Let's hope they make it a nice long tour and hit us all with their industrial glory. Thanks guys this album really made me fall in love with the genre all over again. FLA is back!!!

For the first few listens I was fairly disappointed with this, but I've since warmed up to it a bit. That said, I still think this sounds like phoned in, paint-by-numbers FLA. I can't say that any of the songs are particularly bad, but they aren't very remarkable...or memorable. The songs seem a bit more simplistic than usual...more repetition, less riffs per track overall. The guitar is better integrated into the music than on Millennium, but it's mostly a lot of chugga-chugga without many riffs that are going to stay with you. The track featuring Al Jourgensen is basically a Ministry track...not much evidence of FLA involvement at all, except for the synth bassline hiding underneath the guitars.

Nothing about the album sounds awful, it just sounds...uninspired.

All songs on this album is epic in some ways listing to the songs i keep thinking to my self this next song cant be better then this one... few seconds later prove's me wrong. all songs in this CD starts slow and ends well! FLA put some good effort in I.E.D.

On a cold day in 1992, I walked into a Music Plus and saw a longbox among the "F"s - Tactical Neural Implant by some band called Front Line Assembly. As I was a SF & William Gibson geek (still am, proudly), I bought the album just because I dug the name and cover art.

Little did I know that album would shape my musical addiction for the next two decades.

Up until Epitaph, I bought everything that had Bill Leeb's name on it, and through the Reclamations, Monuments, and Explosions, I loved all of it - side-projects too. But with Epitaph, something changed. The FLA magic was no longer there for me. I developed hesitation; I still kept my eye on FLA releases, but was no longer a day-one adopter.

So then, late last year, I noticed that Leeb & Co had released their latest, Improvised.Electronic.Device. It caught my eye for two reasons: it bore a title very similar to TNI, and it was being hailed as "a zenith album!" and "FLA's best since Hard Wired!" Hm, OK, interesting. Eventually, I got around to buying it, without listening to any of the tracks - I'm old-fashioned that way. This is the first full FLA album I'd bought since Implode, but I'd heard everything they'd released, one way or another.

With I.E.D. (the album, not the song), it's mostly the same old FLA story. The songs incorporate many elements from past albums, rearranging old ideas into new combinations. The title track is 5/4, but it sounds unnatural, as if the band said "Let's do an FLA track, but in a different signature!" "Laws of Deception" sounds very similar to "Surface Patterns", musically and lyrically. "Afterlife", for all its good intentions, is embarrassingly earnest, and its structure recalls "Unknown Dreams." "Stupidity", featuring the inimitable Al Jourgensen, is not an FLA track, but a Ministry song, and is sorely out of place here. "Downfall" is a throwaway ambient track; really, FLA albums don't need this kind of stuff, and let's be honest, the band will never top "Mortal" anyway. It's unnecessary, and feel very much like filler.

Point is, you know what you're going to get with FLA: awkward lyrics about war and loss and mutation, minimal yet gutsy guitar hooks, interesting drum patterns, swirling electronic chaos, and lately, experimentation that doesn't....quite....work mixed with elements that probably worked better in the past. For all the criticisms of Leeb's vocals, I think they're an integral part of the FLA experience. I wouldn't trade his anthemic barking for anything; that's part of what FLA is.

(One more thing - where did all the awesome samples go?)

Now for the (very very very) good. There are two tracks on the album that are pure and simple FLA genius: "Angriff" and "Shifting through the Lens." What's remarkable about these tracks is while they feature everything that's awesome about FLA, they sound completely new.

"Angriff" begins with a surprisingly delicate textured piano melody, only to shift into a lovely pulsating sequence that recalls the classic "Vigilante". This similarity is strengthened by a sudden exploding chainsaw guitar riff and Leeb's measured chanting. The vocals shift through into a wonderfully treated filter, then a trademark FLA chorus erupts, in German, no less! While a bit too Rammstein/Megaherz for my taste, it's still pretty darn awesome. The song does feature "old" FLA bits, but they're put together in an inspired way, and finished off with a flourish. It's a fantastic melding of old + new, and leeches onto your memory in a way that other recent FLA tracks fail to do.

"Shifting through the Lens": wow. I don't think FLA has ever done a more turbo-charged dancefloor track. In terms of driving energy, it's right up there with "Target" and "Plasticity" in my book. The off-kilter trademark bass-lines of "The Blade" and "Heatwave" have slid over to a mid-range sequence now, and the whole track latches onto it to glorious effect. My wife calls the vox distortion "Gollum using the throat-box thing", and the lyrics are ridiculously evocative: "sterilize all contact points / inhale if you want to breathe / dirty poison oxygen / delivers Shiva need." Yeah, I don't know what it means either, but you gotta admit it's exhilarating; a guilty cyber-pleasure that Leeb has been doing for his entire career. And the couplet "slide into darkness / slither down the shaft of hell" has squirmed through my recent consciousness more times than I'd care to relate. The song reminds me of the recent Adrien Brody flick Splice, and given Leeb's penchant for sci-fi films, that might not be an accident. It's an old-fashioned work of EBM hypnotism that punches all the right buttons and scratches all the right itches; I believe it's one of the four or five best songs the band has ever written.

With the addition of Jeremy Inkel and Jared Slingerland, I'm getting the strong sense that this current lineup has the potential to produce something truly phenomenal. "Angriff" and "Shifting" are the fulfillment of this promise: the band didn't try too hard to make something different just for the sake of doing so, and the results are truly incredible. If this lineup can keep up that kind of controlled creativity over an entire album, they may very well be able to produce the successor to Hard Wired that everyone seems to have been pining for: a collection of tracks that sound like they fit together, rather than a selection of too-extreme experimentation and too-familiar retreads. "Angriff" and "Shifting" prove to me that FLA can pull it off; these two songs alone increased my rating to four stars.

In my humble opinion, post-Implode FLA releases have been quite uneven: a great song or two in between less-inspired efforts. However, if you remove the best tracks and put them together on a playlist, it is truly formidable: "Maniacal", "Anti", "Social Enemy", "Electric Dreams", "Armageddon", "Shifting through the Lens", "Angriff". These are seven tracks that highlight the recent direction of FLA while also retaining the core of what has made the band so attractive over the last two-plus decades. While they're scattered over the last few releases, it shows me that the band's got it in them.

So, while I don't consider I.E.D. to be quite the return to form that others have declared, there are (finally) signs that FLA has been struck by a spark of inspiration. Time will tell if this spark will erupt into a magnificent display of electronic mayhem, but after my extended stay in FLA limbo, I can finally say this: Mr. Leeb, with I.E.D., you've gotten my strict attention once again.

Great album, great group. Saw the I.E.D. concert in San Fransisco on June 11 2011, VIP baby!!. These guys know how to jam. I have all their albums. Been a fan since listening to Tactical Neural Implant in the early 90s. I wish they would go back to the old FLA style, with samples. Industrial music with samples is where it's at.

I'm not sure what all the griping is about. I just got this CD and I find if very satisfying. I'm not well acquainted with FLAs earlier work, but I love great industrial/electronica and this is great stuff. I do have "Artificial Soldier" and I will admit this has a different feel, but I can't say one is better than the other. All I know is that "Improvised.Electronic.Device." sounds pretty amazing to my ears.

Improvised Electronic Device is Front Line Assembly's most guitar-heavy industrial album since their release of Millennium and Hard Wired back in the mid-nineties. There is more emphasis here on making effective guitar-driven tracks than the more complex, intricate electronic and sample sequencing found on Epitaph. If you are aware of the sound on Artificial Soldier, this album is definitely a continuation of that, but with very much improved production values and presentation. However, coming after the positive reception of Artificial Soldier, I would personally consider this a very safe album, but a quality release as usual from very talented musicians. The beginner to FLA would probably fall in love with this futuristic sound just the same as I did with Hard Wired back in 2000. Standout tracks would be Angriff, Shifting Through The Lens, and Stupidity feat. Al Jourgensen of Ministry, although it is essentially a Ministry song. If you are new to this band, then go to the Metropolis or Dependent Records websites to listen to some decent samples, as the ones on Amazon never quite get past the long intros.

This album is mostly a wall of noise with not much discernable melody, lyrics, syncopation, nor harmony. This is a big disappointment because the sound design is otherwise good and the band is capable of so much better. Many tunes start out really well, but as soon as the chugging guitars kick in, it's all washed out and too busy and too dense and not really very dynamic nor changing. Maybe the lyrics are good, but you'd never know because they aren't clear enough to understand. I've been a forgiving yet loving FLA fan for a long time. Fans: Don't buy this album, sorry.