DYM - The Technocratic Deception

There are three things about the second official album by Canadian duo Dym that need to be understood :

- To look at this as a standard Industrial album is completely missing the point.
- Those disappointed by 'Swarm' need gather themselves and take serious notice of this review.
- It's REALLY fucking good.

So album number two effectively carries on where 'Invilid' and 'Swarm' left off, but adds a huge injection of technical talent. Arc's other project 'Fractured' has a huge amount in common with this album, and there are also hallmarks of similar act 'Encephalon' - but the immediate selling point here is the unbridled talent.

Beginning with 'The End', Dym instantly amaze me - this track has a huge melody, sublime and heavy bass (Courtesy of Kolja's mastering), and the vocals stand out, offering some relevant lyrics. Strong track, leading into something even stronger.

'Let Your Blood Run Dry' was previously aired on a free DWA sampler entitled 'We Are Legion Too' - it's a great track to initiate an audience into the DYM Prototype - Electro-Industrial turned full circle, leaning into Aggrotech, but keeping a safe enough distance away to keep both critic and stereotype at bay.

Track three, 'NWO' is the cream of the crop - it has a gorgeous dark electro hook, with a melody I absolutely cherish, and it builds into something hyper-aggressive and distorted (Trademark DYM). It's one of my favourite tracks of the year, and as the title suggests, this beauty is all about various conspiracies.

'Bring Me Down' follows in the footsteps of Fractured and features the spoken-word vocal of 'It-Clings' (recently reviewed here). The track is noticeable to me for some seriously heavy, extremely fucked up Bass that acts as backdrop for the narrative. On this track, the vocal context is a vitriolic look at society, happiness, and modern-day cliches. Unorthodox, but I dig this a lot.

'Rapture' follows a seriously powerful opening quartet, and although it isn't a favourite of mine, it's a track thats brilliantly written, with Dubstep inspired bass.

'Tumor - Type 2' (the original featuring on the latest Electronic Music to Cure Cancer' compilation) is possibly the heaviest track on here, sounding like a bastard child of Nitronoise and Die Sektor.

'Slave' immediately appeals with a beautiful, huge club-style intro, reminiscent of FGFC820s 'Killing Fields' (at least when you consider catchiness), and would be yet another contender for the top track here - if it didn't lead into the title track of sorts, 'Techno D?cept?'.

Having taken a break here numerous times just to let the gravity of this release sink in, 'Decepto' sounds epic from the very first moment - you just know it's building up to a huge moment where everything goes grey and shits all over your expectations - it's done that, and I don't want to wash it off anytime soon.
"So this is it? So this is the end of all things?" - These lyrics open the track, and considering the world is predicted to end in... hmm... less than a day... this will possibly be the last truly epic track to ever be released.

Chiasm makes an appreciated appearance with 'What If?', performing a memorable vocal section. 'Bit Conspiracy', as the penultimate track, serves its purpose well and delivers enough to have us eagerly waiting to devour the closer, and 'Glass Catfish' is a lengthy track with poignant chords that's slightly sad, but incredibly well written.

Depending on the version of this album you buy, the remixes will differ.

DWA's release offers Grendel, iVardensphere, vProjekt and Soman. Vendetta offer CygnosiC, Fractured, FGFC820 and Nitronoise. Both offer the winner of the remix contest, Mas-Si-Osare.

Neither are capable of disappointing. It's about Dym this band exploded into the ears of every Industrial fan.

Truly amazing piece of art.

The first 10 I have given since our new scoring system, and likely the last for a very, very long time. Dec 19 2012