Container 90 - Working Class League

Old school or Anhalt EBM is mostly a genre which has a lot of mediocre bands. Lets face it, rehashing the past is never really useful. And the fact that old people hate the current EBM sound, and want to relive the old Nitzer Ebb days, sounds a lot like midlife crisis to me. Nitzer Ebb's 'That Total Age' is still the defining album in that genre. Some bands can do a pretty good imitation (Spetznaz comes to mind) but most are just a lukewarm imitation of the real thing.

Container 90 is a pleasant exception to the rule. Although their music has a lot of influences from Nitzer Ebb and DAF, they also infuse a lot of punk and oi elements in their music. I already liked the previous album 'World Championshit' and played the song "Strength" in my DJ sets, because it was a fun catchy song, and it was always nice seeing the cybers trying to catch up with the about 300 BPM of that one. Only problem was the lacking production mostly of the vocals. But hey, here we have a new album!

And production and vocals are good now, so we can enjoy Container 90 for what they are. A good fun mix between hardcore and oi punk and old school EBM. A bit like Agnostic Front and Nitzer Ebb stuck in an elevator with 25 six packs of beer. The music is electronic and very Nitzer Ebb, but because quite some song songs have fast speeding tempos (around 300 BPM) and typical screaming vocals and choirs, it has a distinct hardcore punk feel. While many EBM bands try to incorporate rock and metal sounds into their music and consequently go the suck way, Container 90 proves it is all a stance by being punk and metal with a full electronic instrumentation. Way to go!

'Working Class League' is a very original old school EBM album, and a good one as well. Most of the songs are catchy, have harsh vocals and typical New York City hardcore choirs. This is great stuff for a full on circle EBM pit on the dance floor and the concert halls. I can see people go wild on tracks like "Taste The Fist", "Copycat" and "Respect MF". Please stand aside if you are one of those weak cybers, because this is stuff for the tough men and women! Only downside is the slower songs can't escape the old school EBM vibe i described earlier, but when they go fast it gets really good.

Until Spark! decides to do another album this year, this one is probably my favorite old school EBM album of the year. get it people. Originality, Muscle, Hate, Beer, EBM, Punk, Container 90 has it all! Join in the chant! Jun 02 2013