Customer Reviews

Trust in Opium

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

 

 

This is just my two bits on this album, the other reviews have touched on its greatness quite nicely. If you are a fan of pure industrial music you can't go wrong with this. None of that hybrid EBM/industrial dance here. This is the closest anyone has come to capturing the intense schizophrenic mayhem of Skinny Puppy without sounding derivative at all. Upon first listen only a few of these songs jumped out at me, "Drywet", "Nyz2c" and "H.o.m.m" but listening to it more (and in a more distressed state of mind) the chaos congealed much like it did when I first heard Skinny Puppy and later Download, and I came to appreciate this album for what it is. The name, Kalte Farben (Cold Color in English) describes this perfectly, vibrant soundscapes with an off-kilter beat that send a chill down your spine. I look forward to hearing more from this one man band.

I had a hard time getting into this album. I listened to it probably 5+ times over at least 6 months before it clicked. When I first listened to it, my ears hurt too much and I couldn't pull out any sort of sense from it. Suddenly one day (the one I promised would be the "last chance" this disc had) it clicked, and I loved it. It reminds me a lot of Skinny Puppy, but with more static on top and at a more frenetic pace (if that's possible). If at first you hate it... wait and keep giving it a try, because once it clicks you'll realize what a great album this is!

I actually don't have this record, i have the two records ("trust" and "opium") that this record was compiled from. I hated Kalte Farben on first listen and stashed it away in my CD collection... but somewhere in '96 - '97 i was bored as hell with all the "electronica" out there so i popped these records in. By the second or third listen i finally became aware of exactly what Kalte Farben really is: This is a fabulous example of industrial / punk / classical / weirdness all fused into one horrifically crazy CD. No song sounds anything like any other song (Ingo Beitz is a multi-talented artist). Buy this record if you are interested in darker electronic music at all! You won't regret it.

After Skinny Puppy there was Download. Now there is Kalte Farben. Like most of the greatest albums I own, someone convinced me reluctantly to buy this. It looked like yet another poor-quality half-hearted industrial attempt. Wrong! Kalte Farben has everything Skinny Puppy/Download fans have been waiting for! Some of the songs are inredible. Personally I like Illusions, but Innocents, HOMM, Brains Strained, Opium, and Life are all great tracks! What are you waiting for? Buy it!!! (PS. You can hear one of their remixes of FrontLine Assembly on Re-Wind. It is not the best remix ever but is a glimpse of what this band is capable of).