Customer Reviews

Modern Ruin

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

 

 

It's hard to believe its been 5 years since the last Covenant record. I consider myself a bit biased, as I feel the band's pinnacle record is still Northern Night, which is a very somber and slow record compared to their dancier records like Skyshaper and United States of Mind.

I felt that Skyshaper was a mixed bag with a few strong tracks, but loaded with filler too. I had hoped that Modern Ruin would be greatness from start to finish. Unfortunately, it too is loaded with filler, with a handful of truly great tracks.

First, Lightbringer is a really good track, I'm just not a fan of the Necro Facility vocalist adding his part. What would have been a great dancy futurepop classic, is marred by this stranger's vocals stealing the limelight from Eskil. It feels more like a remix than a Covenant original.

Judge of my Domain is a great track with Joachim's robotic vocals blending perfectly with Eskil's soaring hook in the chorus. Not much to say other than its a super dancy melodic Covenant song that you would expect to find on their records. Reminds me of 20Hz from Skyshaper, but not as epic.

Dynamo Clock. Eh, its just there. Some rather uninspired vocals from Eskil on this track. Its really just a track that I could see filling a dance floor and doing nothing else. No melodic hook and too noisy in parts.

The Beauty & The Grace is probably the best track on the record. Epic chorus, soaring melody throughout. It builds to a lovely crescendo and has great vocals from Eskil. Classic Covenant as we now expect from them.

Get On is another classic Covenant track with a killer retro keyboard hook that reminds me of something OMD would pull off. Simple yet effective lyrics and vocals. Really atmospheric too. Reminds me of Pulse from Skyshaper.

Worlds Collide is a good track. I don't know why I like it to be honest. It feels like a track from Northern Lights a bit. Again, this track is kind of just "there" with simple lyrics and melodies. However, I still think its one of the stronger tracks

In The Night is useless. Distorted, slowed down vocals which do nothing other than make the listener laugh as they wonder what Covenant was going for here. Doesn't even feel like a real song.

Beat The Noise is another dancefloor filler in case you didnt get enough of that from Dynamo Clock. Simple vocals from Eskil unfortunately. Almost completely percussive heavy, or at least to the point that I cant remember any hooks in the track.

The Road is a good closer track. Way better than the one from Skyshaper, but nowhere near as good as Atlas from Northern Lights. Its a slow haunting track, but what I think it really does is remind the listener how this album ended just a little too soon with so many filler tracks in front of it.

I wont even mention Kairos or Modern Ruin 1 & 2. They are filler. Period

So, in the end I give it four stars mostly because I still love this band. Sadly, it probably deserves 3 at best. After 5 years and many troubles with labels, I feel they really could have crafted a truly epic album, instead of a handful of really good tracks. The presence of Daniel Meyer (Haujobb) in the band isnt felt in my opinion. Not sure if thats a good thing or not. Covenant had filler before he joined, and they still do now.

Still, I'm happy this album is finally out and the tracks I like I REALLY like so its no loss to me. I listen to hundreds of different artists and Covenant is just one of them. Diehard fans will still likely be disappointed.

I've been a HUGE Covenant fan for the last five albums, but with this one they have fallen from great heights. Of course, all albums have some major hits and a few misses, but this one is mostly misses IMO.

I put off buying this album since it came out because I heard a few track on YouTube and was so un-impressed. I finally bought it hoping that maybe listening to the album in its entirety, it would make sense. It doesn't.

Lightbringer could be a good song, but it's far too poppy for my taste. Beat the Noise has a great beat, but the lyrics are repetitive and boring. Judge of My Domain is a great song. That's the only one off of this album I have any desire to listen to.

If you like "soundscapes" and artsy music and the like, you will enjoy this album. I like profound lyrics, moving beats and music with a purpose, so I didn't care for this album one bit.

covenant is an amazing band with a poerful array of procs. I personally find them one of the more listenable things that really catches me right out of the gate, and I have to attribute that to a few reasons. There are the vocals that are amazing and there are also the beats, and those range from emotive to something powered by a really amazing beat. Over the last three albums (counting this one) this has been the case, and I really like that. There is something in there that reminds me of Depeche Mode in a sense, but it also belongs to them and them alone. Still, I do not hold that view.

Some complaints have been leveled against Covenant in the past, but many of these things are attributed to all bands loking for their distinction. The claims have been one of the band becoming more mainstreamed, with them losing the feel they had on albums like Sequencer and adopting a sound like the one found on Northern Lgihts and, to a little elsser degree, Skyshaper. While i think albums like Europa and older albums like Sequencer were unique, there is something about the new covenant that is amazing. audience. With that, an audience grows but some people are not hapy. Still things do change.

If you have heard the last albums, you have a sense of what to expect. Lightbringer is a sound with a nice beat and lyrics, and this (which was the first single) is what the album hinges on. It has some nice loops and a lot of direction, making it something you can move to. There are also counterbeats to that, slow places in the motions, and i enjoy that equally as well. The emotive side here is one you can hear int he sounds that the lead always makes, and you really witness it when he is singing with impact instead of singing with instruments in tow. It all amazes like the other albums have been doing now.

There is something aobut the band and the direciton they have now that makes them really easy to plug into. It is nice to have, and it is a pleasure to esperience. Older fans know what I mean by this, and the album will not suprise. Really old fans thinking aobut returning because they may have heard about differences in this - it is not a reutrn and that is why I mentioned it. Still, it is covenant. Personally, I fgive it almost a 4.5, almost enough to be a 5 but not quite.That siad, it is well worth obtaining.

This is the best Covenant album ever. I can't stop listening to it. Lightbringer is a great song and sets the tone for a brilliant set of tunes that are more vibrant and progressive than any of their albums. They do something other bands in this genre fail to do--they keep getting better and are not interested in simply stepping back into that stock 90s sound their fan base seems to be stuck in. This is a top ten album of the year.

Modern Ruin constructs a future archeology across a musical landscape, working aggressively with the production of sound from noise, cataclysm, con-fusion, deconstruction and synthesis. Fusing the schizophrenic construction together is lead singer Eskil Simonsson's soaring vocals that nearly speak of the fractured potentiality of the Übermensch.

For me the album took a distancing to capture me. Initially purchasing and downloading, only to listen to once and set aside, I came back to it out of a recollection of the haunting vocals of "Judge of My Domain" and then it opened up, addictively so. Lightbringer also quickly captures one in its powerful Serres-resonating multiplicities of sound but in time, the whole album has the potential to open up to the listener as a coherent production of dystopian potentiality.

Covenant used to sound fresh and always managed to bring an aural surprise or two on their albums. Modern Ruin doesn't. It is OK for die hard fans - but they will not get any new ones with this outing...Claes is definitely missing.

Covenant's latest release, "Modern Ruin" opens with 1:28s of a blaring Klaxon and a heavily processed voice; I can't make out what its saying, but I wouldn't be surprised if its, 'WARNING: YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR THE BEST EBM ALBUM OF THE LAST 12 YEARS.'

With this album, Covenant have reinvented, reinvigorated, upgraded and generally improved their sound. The addition of Haujobb's Daniel Myer to the line-up has injected an abrasive but compulsively danceable element which has made them harder and yet strangely more accessible.

The EBM scene which spawned them died a sad, ignoble death in about 2004: the victim of too much formulaic music, too many fevered egos and too few decent releases; but Covenant have gone on to transcend its ruin and leave what negligible competition still exists standing in the dust with this release. If you already know them, I suspect that you'll love this. And if you've never heard them, this album is an excellent place to start.

I have been a fan of Covenant for a few years.United States of Mind was my first Covenant album and since I have been listening to them on a regular basis. I have to admit I really like the sounds on Covenant's last 2 studio albums Skyshaper and Northern Lights so when Modern Ruin came out earlier this year, I was not disappointed one bit. While the music may not sound anything different from past albums, I still enjoyed the music immensely.

Being introduced to their music way back in 1997 I have followed them since. A prime candidate & real individual voice that's stood out from many of the other bands in the Industrial/EBM scene, Sweden's Covenant has remained addictive, infectious, & simply, just a very good example of talent & professionalism in electronic music. Whatever form their next album takes they just have a knack for creating some very stirring & seductive music. I remember reading years back in an interview w/ vocalist Eskil Simonsson where he stated that the bands goal was to write the perfect pop song & I feel they've proved that throughout the years w/ numerous dance floor classics to their even more cerebral, almost film score like ballads. Needless to say "Modern Ruin" can successfully & thankfully appeal to listeners not into electro industrial music or the gothic scene, which says plenty for a long running independent band. The trademark deep crystalline vocals are ever present narrating a mash up of introspective post new wave & science fiction sensibilities w/ rich layers of hypnotic beats, harmonious synthesizers, & stainless steel analogues. A real piece of work.

I have been a Covenant fan for quite some time (along with all the other offerings by Metropolis). I was excited to see a new offering of tracks from them and put in my pre-order. I will not say that I am disappointed in the new album, but I cannot gush about how great it is either. Don't get me wrong, this IS a good album and perhaps with additional listening sessions it will grow on me more. However, I don't think that it compares with some of their previous efforts. It sounds to me like they are trying to branch out and extend their sound into different areas. To me, it they are not quite there yet. I understand the need to grow and change as a band, but I sure did love the old sound. I would still recommend this effort.