A steady current of wavering electricity runs through you on No Consequence before thrashing drums beat you down and never let you stand back up. It’s an electronic mosh pit from front to back leaving your eye blackened and your nose bleeding – but your smiling and you want so much more. Taylor’s vocals haven’t calmed down over the years and still maintain a sinister edge. The rumbling breakdown around the minute and thirty second mark sounds as if it’s holding back a stampede that’s about to break loose.
Wishing Well is raw and brutal and unpredictable – which is what I like so much about it. At one moment Youth Code is delivering an undeniable gut punch of electronics before completely pausing and resetting keeping you on your toes the whole track. In Search of Tomorrow is a mashup of drum’n’bass and industrial that has a bit of a retro vibe thanks to the moody and hypnotic underlying synth line that shines at moments such as the 01:05 mark.
Make Sense is a brilliant track that brings us down. In some ways inspired by trip hop, it’s a slow and grueling track that’s both exciting yet ominous. The song is split in two sections like a HIIT exercise session; slower paced moments where Taylor’s vox really come alive and brutal, thrashing sessions where every ounce of anger comes out. The last song I’m Sorry lets the electronics serve as a fuzzy bass guitar forming a near constant noise wall that’s buried beneath the major beat. A fantastic finale and one that I’m excited to hear over and over again.
I didn’t really include an intro in the beginning of this review as one isn’t really warranted for one of the best acts the modern industrial scene has seen. While I don’t think this sails to the heights of their previous full-length album A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression, it certainly stands on its own and gave me another Youth Code styled beatdown. And I can’t ever complain about that.
