Agony of Souls - Temporärer Wahnsinn

Right, I've told myself time and time again to avoid all Hyperbole when I review this. Agony of Souls is an exceptionally underground Dark Electro act from Germany. I mean this when I say exceptionally - they first came to my attention about a year ago when I was talking to someone who mentioned that he was trying to purchase their CD's. After looking everywhere I can, asking people in the "Know", I finally managed to find one small, and very cryptic website.

To this day, Agony of Souls is pretty much obscure to everyone - the bands last.fm page has virtually nothing on it (Yes, I know not everyone uses last.fm), and despite releasing Two albums, there is literally nothing out there on these guys.

Regardless, Temporärer Wahnsinn (Temporary Insanity) is the second release from this duo, (after 2004's "Bluternte") consisting of Alastor and Schattensturm.

The album opens with "Jagdzeit" (Loosely translated into "Hunting Time" - or the more literal; "Hunting Season". What we actually have here is really powerful Synth work. The track is heralded by the very few people who have heard this as one of the stand out tracks by the project. Unfortunately, I find the vocalist to be of a very particular taste.

What he does, he does well, and his vocals are no worse than those of the bigger name bands in this genre. There are occasional moments, however, where I do worry that they will put off potential labels. An example of this Is at the beginning of "Jagdzeit" - the first 10 seconds of vocals make me feel a bit uneasy, but after that, they quickly become what I'd expect.

Second track "Controlled By Fear" carries the cursed burden of being the "Second track after an unexpectedly great first track" - you expect it to be absolutely shit. It... Isn't. It's slower, but equally as endearing. Unlike Jagdzeit (which is a German title, with English Samples), this track has an English title (with German samples). Confusing! I guess that's the Temporary Insanity they're talking about?

...Or maybe not, title track "Temporärer Wahnsinn" blends German...WITH German. My god! Stop confusing me! - Although actually, I'd welcome a lot more of this.

There's a definite aesthetic to this project - I can't put my finger on it, but it's a welcome change to the usual gas mask ridden kids with Green neon lighting, or the extreme gore-themed "Terror EBM" (that's that term again) that seems to populate the subculture. The banner on the webpage says "Hate.Sick.Agony". I'm not sure how relevant that is, but I feel I need to obey it. Other tracks take us on a variation of a Rollercoaster ride, straight into the bowels of Satan's anus. "Illusion" is harsh and beautiful (Ah, the contrast), and between that and the closing track "The Source of Pain", I find myself going from entranced, to headfucked, back to entranced, wanting to dance my fucking kidneys out, then finally, entranced again.

Agony of Souls, for all it is worth, DESERVE to be signed. The previous album "Bluternte", despite it's promise, is weaker than this. Evolution is GOOD.

Alastor also has a side project called Tiefenstrom (to be reviewed soon). What's even better, is that there are FREE mp3s on the website. Go get! Feb 24 2011