Control - The Resistance

Being in control or not, the answer to this question can be received from the new album of US based resident Thomas Garrison hiding behind the code name "Control". This is his eights full album until now after almost 13 years and its time of "The Resistance" to penetrate my brain with a thick crowbar. Two years after a highly praised album "Deadly Sins" which was reflected at Brutal Resonance as well; Thomas changes his home base from Malignant records to Ant-Zen label, but he remains loyal to his strong roots of Misanthrope Studios and to his significant sharp sound.

From the very beginning I dive into the sonic madness with the track "Victory Equals Violence"; and this starter introduces the full specter of what was developed during the decades of genre development. A thick humming ambiance overloads speakers, it is immersed into the dirty soundscape full of radio disturbances, guided by a distant drum beats which add some rhythm into the wall of violence. Rage and aggression are spilled out of the following track "The Resistance", where brutal distorted vocal session is covered by venomous atmosphere of protest and hate. Though being very violent, the music doesn't lack a slight injection of dark ambient passages inside it in order to support a deep background effect. "First Drop of Blood" is a good example of that maneuver where the floating but still depressing melody rolls over and over again, creating a hypnotizing atmosphere of painful death slowly creeping inside the body.

Changing mood again into more aggressive, arrives the fourth blast "Disgraced by This Race". Strong power electronics tunes are mixed with furious vocals, sharp death industrial layers are flowing all over the surface like gallons of napalm. To give the support to those feelings, "Disgraced by This Race" is transformed into "Fuel the Fire" and it is definitely powered up with a rough pulsations and a kind of drilling effect, sawing up my already thick brain.

Unlike the previous tracks, "Before the Fray" is almost a dark ambient composition, where the distant viscid background sound runs the show; but to deepen the impression of the fray Thomas manipulates with different kinds of occasional industrial sounds, radio interferences, metal scratches and distant pulsating voices.

If the previous composition lulled me into the false sense of security, "Total War" comes to wake me up with its heavy wall of self-destruction above reproach, governed by violent shouts and screaming metal agony putting an acid test to my sanity, but after all this is what the specific genre is for. Finally, Thomas proposes "The Solution" to all the anguishes of body and mind, full of blasting sound and sharp edges of the atmosphere to put a thick point to his statement of how power electronics should look like.

Coming all in one piece after this kind of baptism of fire, I can confidently declare that with the bands like "Control", the genre will not be forgotten, and loyal fans will receive again and again many hours of pleasure. I am not sure though, that I can call "The Resistance" the best album of Thomas, but it is definitely needs to be explored while there is not much activity in this scene for past few years. Jul 08 2012