CD Reviews
Front Line Assembly - Wake Up The Coma
Front Line Assembly - Wake Up The Coma
Metropolis Records
February 2019
Electro - Industrial legends Front Line Assembly are back with the "Wake Up The Coma"
Canadian pioneers Front Line Assembly has returned with a release that should satisfy their fans. At least the most of them. Six years after their previous full length album, "Wake Up the Coma" came out in February 2019 and FLA's sound is really interesting, once again.
Certainly and that is clear to everyone, FLA do not need to prove anything to anyone. Billy Leeb and Rhys Fulber, in "Wake Up the Coma", have done what a band with the history of FLA - 33 years from their first release - has every right to do so. When you count a number of releases throughout these years, when you 've come through several difficulties and different genres, there comes the time that you have to present this in one album. And that is what FLA do with this album.
And this is what they do. In "Wake Up the Coma", someone can listen to several experimental elements in the FLA's sound, some of them taken from the past or other music projects of Leeb (Delirium), some completely new. In any way, "Wake Up the Coma" is an album that it was long expected and the result is absolutely great.
Along with Leeb and Fuber in this album we find Jared Slingerland and Sasha Kevill, known from the latest years line-up of the band. But not only FLA members are involved in "Wake Up the Coma". Leeb managed to have several friends as guest appearances in the album. However the best contribution to this album is the obvious "touch" of Jeremy Inkel in programming two of the tracks, "Mesmerized" and "Structures". Jeremy Inkel passed away in January 2018 and that was a shock, not only for the band, but for the complete industrial scene. Inkel was the band's keyboard player and programmer since 2005 and "Wake Up the Coma" released on the day that would be his 36th birthday.
The album starts with "Eye On You" where we find the contribution of DAF's Robert Görl. Seconds after the first synths and notes I was confident that this is an album as it was expected from FLA. Even reminding some older riffs of the bands previous releases. With a kind of hypnotic synth session into the track, quite tripping. Moving forward with a lot of tension to "Arbeit" Clearly a track to enter the club's playlist. Powerful beats and tunes.
Another interesting part of the "Wake Up the Coma" is the cover version of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus". In this track we find Jimmy Urine of Mindless Self Indulgence in the German vocals. I must say that I can't see the real reason of this cover's existence. It is not bad and there is an interesting official video already released, but I would rather FLA's elements to really cover a track like this and not to make it look like the original, not so much, at least. Even Urine's vocals are so close to the original one of Falco.
"Tilt" and "Hatevol" are two powerful tracks with strong EDM elements in mid/low-tempo style and heavy synths. Good additions to the album, not the tracks that would make the difference though. There is an experimentation in those two, quite more obvious. "Proximity" is another mid-tempo compositions, still with powerful chorus when it comes to Leebs vocals, beats and synths and dark ambience.
"Living A Lie" is coming with a lot of new elements for FLA. Absolutely dance track and club hit, including newer industrial style elements, with aggressive and harsh beats. I have several question regarding the lyrics of this track, though, which I would love to discuss with Bill Leeb.
Next is the same title track "Wake Up the Coma" where we find Nick Holmes as guest in vocals. Perhaps another experimental track since the clean voice of Holmes comes with a heavy electro percussion and guitar riffs. A dark electro low-tempo ballad combining several elements and all of this is completed with a well-known clean voice of Paradise Lost's Nick Holmes.
"Mesmerized" is where the best part begins. With the obvious influence and work of Inkel's programming, this track along with "Structures", the second track that Inkel programmed, we get an absolute Front Line Assembly experience. Catchy synths, strong lines in all options, bass, beats and vocals. Both of these tracks and especially "Structures" could hit the dancefloors with the strong hypnotic synth riffs and the catchy but still, dark atmosphere. Between these beautiful tracks stands "Negative Territory" which fits perfectly and completes these puzzle of electronic dark sound and atmosphere.
The album is closing with "Spitting Wind" featuring Chris Connelly of Revolting Cocks in vocals. A really unique track, combining tha known samples and sound of FLA with a beautiful voice. Starting with a kind of mysticism in the synth, transforming to a drum-machine and vocal march while is completed with a melodic turn both in synths and voice. Seems like David Bowie is in the studio along with FLA and Connelly.
Six years since their previous full length album, "Echogenetic", Canadian industrial legends, Front Line Assembly, returned with an album that represents what a band of that size and such a history should do as a next step. New sound elements and experimental compositions perfectly matched with known music ingredients from their past releases. It is clean industrial sound with styles from the past and present included. Front Line Assembly did what they know to do best giving us a new industrial album that we needed. There will be many that will not be satisfied. But that is exactly what is expected when a legendary band like FLA releases a new album. I would dare to put "Wake Up the Coma" among the FLA's best releases.
Info:
https://frontlineassembly.bandcamp.com/album/wake-up-the-coma
https://www.facebook.com/frontlineassembly/
https://www.metropolis-records.com/product/11677/wake-up-the-coma
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY (Feat. Jimmy Urine) - Rock Me Amadeus
