Combat Voice - The Last Flow

It was only until VERY recently that the majority of us began to accept that Old School EBM is making a resurgence. It took a superhuman effort to make this the case, and I think most of the credit for that has to go to the Old School Electrology boxset that was released on E.A.R last Winter.

The remainder of the credit should be divided among some of the more excellent acts that are still going (Astma, Spark!, Object, Ondska - I could name a dozen more), and finally to the home of EBM itself, Belgium - Which is precisely where Combat Voice are from.

This act may even have a hint of familiarity, as the singer, Bernard Feron, is also in Mono Electronic Density, who are also featured on here. In typical EBM fashion, 'Last Flow' contains old style 'Punk' vocals (a point of contention, I'm sure), and synth riffs reminiscent of acts such as Autodafeh, Mentallo & The Fixer, etc, but overlaps them with more modern, high-octane compositions that create a very noisy and tangible song.

'The Devil Way' could be mistaken for a J-L de Meyer song, and Bernard's vocals here are so similar to the great man himself, that there's times when this album might as well be released as 32crash, or C-Tec. It's essential to remember, with Old-School EBM especially, that imitating your peers will do you no favours, and it's a deadly trap to get snared by.

It's something that MED managed to get around, and the evidence here is that Combat Voice will do the same thing, by merit of pure energy and toil.

I'll take this chance to mention Richard, the composer and keyboardist of the group, as his contribution marks this release in a territorial sense of boasting - a lot of the music on here is very decorated for Old-School EBM, and often plays ego to what is sometimes seen as an un-technical genre.
This of course , isn't true, as the puritans and leaders of the scene will no doubt testify against, but it's quite rare you get a band doing something this new 30 years after the scene was originally heralded.

You could carry on zooming in and out of technicality and detail, there's the textbook songs about Unity, Pride, Toil and Warfare, there's songs like 'Body Generation' that sum up EBM - It's even in the acronym, and although every hallmark of this fine genre is here, they're dusted down, revisited, and given a fancy bowtie and monocle for the next generation.

Combat Voice is the voice of old school EBM indeed, and although there's a plethora of very strong releases due in 2012, any of which could knock this from the podium, it would take something very special to leave this festering and forgotten in the depths of the EBM scene. Feb 09 2012