Deuxvolt - Union of Opposites

'Union of Opposites' was released on 11 February 2012 and was given to fans for free in exchange for a simple SHARE or LIKE on the fans Facebook, YouTube or Twitter pages to help promote Deuxvolt's new album. The album cover artwork is enough to draw you in before you hear even a single note of music from the album. The artwork shows two topless mannequin-like dolls head to head in an embrace. One of them has white hair and the other has black hair. The artwork seems to sum up the mood of the album right away with its dark and angelic elements intertwined into one.

The first track, 'Blackheart ' has a musical intro and then jumps right into the hard-stomping song. Right away I know I am going to be in for quite a wild ride. The guitar riffs remind me of Rammstein 's guitar riffs, but the vocals and music fall more into the Industrial and Goth genres. The combination of male and female vocals fit their style of music very well. The male vocals provide a more aggressive side, while the female vocals give us the melodic and choral, if not gothic, side. 'Dance With Ghosts ' has basically the same guitar riffs and heavy stomping beats, but the female vocals switch more to the aggressive male side. The Deuxvolt website is now showing the music video for this song and it shows a militaristic side of Deuxvolt with black and white visuals put together with vintage clips of military scenes flashing back and forth. The song definitely has an aggressive feel to it and it stomps perfectly alongside the soldiers in the video.

'From The Stars ' slows the pace down a bit and combines the familiar stomping bass drum kicks, but adds more synthesizer riffs which glide along like an electronic orchestra with pieces of choral elements emerging off and on throughout the song. Moving into the 'Lose My Soul ' track, I was thinking it would be a softer electronic song based on its intro, but then it jumps back into the hard stomping bass drums, bass lines, but does add a more melodic vocal. Track 5, 'Goth ', is definitely what it says. It sounds like Enigma got thrown into a hard driving Industrial pit, blended together and spit back out. The Goth crowd will definitely like the Gothic feel of this track, it has a slower beat to dance to and there are plenty of Gothic choirs to get listeners into the Goth mood. 'Breathless ' jumps into the Gothic choral style as well, but once again it stomps again back into the hard-driving bass drum kicks. The best part of this song is towards the end of this track when the vocals overlay each other and give us a soft female Industrial and Operatic sound, which fit quite well together.

'God Of Himself ' has more of the steady guitar riffs and up-front female vocals, but this song has more of an Industrial feel and could even fit a movie soundtrack well. It is not as forceful as the previous tracks, but is still a strong dance track. 'Evampire ' brings out the clavichord and gives off a vampire type mood, but then, as I predicted, the heavy guitar riffs come in stomping with the bass drum kicks. At this point, that style and sound has kind of given me heavy guitar and drum overload. I was hoping for a short break from it. I would have liked to hear this song continue like the beginning of it. The vocals are very nicely delivered in this song, but I think a remix is due for this song with a darker, minimal, vampire mood emerging which would bring out those great vocals. The song has a lot of power and emotion in the vocals and is definitely a great vampire type song, but I could hear greater potential in it for a true vampire masterpiece with epic appeal if it was more orchestral and a bit slower. If they could transform this song into something like Concrete Blonde 's 'Bloodletting '

'Devil Vs Man ' is hard, harsh and right up front, with no holding back. The male vocals are aggressive and devilish. 'Dies Irae' pulls out all the ghosts and choral vocals and puts them in a hard Industrial beat frenzy. The only way I could describe it is to have a Gothic chorus and Industrial drum line put on the stage for an Operatic ensemble with violins in tow. The final song, 'Beyond The End ' brings back the more melodic synthesizers and clearer female vocals. The guitars are still present, but allow the vocals to stay more up front, along with male vocals.

The album is a solid release from Deuxvolt and has a mix of elements which should appeal to fans of Industrial, Goth and Rock, but I think it could have had more of a rise and fall from track to track to give the listener some relief from the hard drum and guitar riffs in every song. The vocalist and musicians are definitely skilled enough to do practically anything in their songs, and I would love to hear a more balanced album, with softer songs put together with their classic harder songs. The 'Union of Opposites ' album is definitely a keeper, but I would love to see more variety in their next release. For being barely over one year old, they are definitely a strong force in the Industrial Dance genres. Mar 27 2012