Amelia Arsenic - Queen of Risk

Amelia Arsenic's debut EP "Carbon Black" proved that she was the perfect combination of glitz, glamour, and attitude molded into one hell of a dark electronic concoction. The fashion guru's hip-hop inspired vocal delivery combined with the talents of Pete Crane and Ben Bulig (Shiv-r) created an addicting EP that landed on our End of the Year lists. Three years have passed since then and it has been three years since I've been waiting for new material from Arsenic. Alas thanks to the Cyberpunk overlords over at Glitch Mode Recordings my digital prayers have been answered. Amelia Arsenic has returned with "Queen of Risk". 

To make a long story short, Sean Payne (Cyanotic, Vampyre Anvil, CONFORMCO) and Arsenic met on a US tour; turns out they both liked each other's music enough to collaborate with one another. Amelia Arsenic's down and dirty rhythms meets Payne's signature "angry robot noises" that Glitch Mode has practically patented.

The album kicks off with a wonderful club banger titled 'RX Love' wherein Arsenic spews out lists of drugs and just speaks about generally getting fucked up and degenerating. While this is not necessarily the standard output for Glitch Mode I believe the frenetic beat and overall angst of the song will have many electronic lovers addicted to the track. 'Live Slow Die Old' brings together sludgy dark electronics and random blips of electronic bliss while 'Architects of Death' allows heavier percussion and guitars to reign supreme. The title track of the album 'Queen of Risk' has an even heavier focus on rhythm and guitar while keeping a slight lo-fi atmosphere. The final track on the album 'Homewrecking' picks the pace back up but keeps the tone from 'Queen of Risk'. 

Amelia Arsenic personifies her fierce look and hypnotizing gaze in "Queen of Risk". It is a musical for her artistic persona  and bites as much as it pleases and Sean Payne made "Queen of Risk" all the more wondrous. Plenty of other folks helped add in programming, guitars, recording, engineering, and so much more, but all of that is to much to speak of. Basically all this talent pooled into one five-track EP and it is smashing. 

"Queen of Risk" is currently available under the "pay what you want" moniker on Bandcamp. So don't be a selfish bastard. 


Feb 21 2018