Customer Reviews

Violence As First Nature

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I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about drum-n-bass, except what I read on Wikipedia, and I know which artists I like. As with many Americans, I suspect, the first drum-n-bass album I ran out to buy immediately, was Hive "Devious Methods" after hearing "Untrasonic Sound" on the Matrix soundtrack (I clearly get no brownie points for admitting that though). From there I got into Photek "Form and Function." Both these artists, however, really only have one full-length album each, that really shows their pure sound. I tried many other artists who claimed this genre, but they all sounded like a flowers and rainbows compared to Hive and Photek. So, I mostly turned my back on the genre because I didn't want to hear those drum patterns accompanied by happy-time synth-strings like Enya. Fast forward a decade or so, when breakcore emerged to take drum-n-bass back to hell, and this is the sub-genre that brought me back to drum-n-bass. I purchased Bong-Ra "Full Metal Racket" on MP3, to moderate satisfaction. Then I purchased the quentisential Alec Empire debut "The Destroyer" (one of the most amazing demonstrations of aggressive programmed drum technique), and also the seminal "Ambush!" by breakcore pioneer DJ Scud.

So, I was somewhat apprehensive to step backward to drum-n-bass after going to the extremes of breakcore, and after hearing these sound bites which are just so deceiving and really kind of soft compared to the intensity of each song if you heard it inb the middle. However, I found myself as delighted as I was with any of the albums I mentioned. Submerged has superbly formed a sort of bridge between traditional drum-n-bass and it's darker and more extreme cousin, the ever growing breakcore scene. I live in the south where the few raves we did have back in the 90's were mostly stupid, and people who are familiar with these genres seem to always mention Deiselboy (is it just me or is he terrible, and a poser?), but all I want for my DNB is a seriously deep level of darkness, and the type of fearless textural adventuring expected more from industrial/jazz/rock experimentalists.

"Violence As First Nature" turned out to be less extreme with high paced distortion than The Destroyer, but more extreme than the sometimes hip-hop Devious Methods. This perfect for my tastes. It's use of vocal samples bears a kinship to both those albums, as well as Form and Function. It's fast and creepy on both discs, and I have yet to find any lull of overly self-involved monotony that has become commonplace with the more angry electronic artists. This is just a really condensed nearly hour an half that comes in like an evil fog but leaves like a tsunami. I could not possibly be more satisfied, and it even gave me several more names that are new to me that I can explore next. I can't say enough. This guy goes hard!!

This album is pretty amazing. very dark, techy and melodic at times, the whole thing has some very heavy beats and sounds but is totally smooth the whole way through. also has remixes by the ever-lovely Scorn and DNB master, Technical Itch. also didnt realize when i bought this that it is actually 2 cds, the first being the actual album and the second is an awesome set by Subermerged thats been divided track by track featuring awesome DNB tracks by the likes of Current Value, Tech Itch, and others that i cant remember at the moment for some reason lol. BOTTOM LINE = get this shiz, very bombtastic DNB.