Death in Ecstasy - Chains

Ah, Soviet Russia. I always liked the country for one reason or another, whether it would be the sordid history behind the tough Motherland, or their policies in World War II. However, now more than ever, I find myself loving the country not for any of that, but for the bands that come stalking out of the ruins of the Chernobyl incident, the communist oppression, and otherwise a society that has really only seen true expression of art for about the past twenty years. But, the Russians are storming forth with their ideas and philosophies, and Death in Ecstasy, a dark electro band from the Winter worn land, shines bright from a lot of the competition.

Their release, 'Chains', was introduced on the eleventh of May of this year, and those who are fans of the boot stomping genre really need to get their hands on this first release, especially since it's available for nothing to everything, your choice, on their Bandcamp page. It includes five songs, "Chains", the instrumental version of it, a remix of the song, and then two demo tracks that were recorded between 2010 and 2011.

The good about this album is that the beats to the songs made me go, "Wow." The synth lines are very well done, and almost serve to heighten my feelings. Which is a hard thing to do; I found myself getting goosebumps when I listened to, "Chains". The instrumental was done just as well, but was still just a repeat without the vocals.

The remix of "Chains" by Cutoff_Sky and Project E.V.A. cut down on the distorted vocals of the original. And, speaking of which, that's something that I would like to slightly touch upon. As much as I like distorted vocals, I also like to be able to differentiate them from the music. And, sometimes, I felt as if the vocals fused a bit too much with the music, making it a bit hard to distinguish the two.

Now, there's where "Lock'nLoad" exceeds. It's much more fast paced than the other songs that were so far presented, and the vocals switch to a growling type, less focused on digital enhancements, and more focused on anger. The fifth and final song, titled, "?????????????????" I found to be lacking in quality. I can't necessarily say it's because it's a demo, because I liked "Lock'n'Load", and that was another demo. I guess I found it to be more repetitious than the other songs on the album.

However, complaints aside, I still found this album to be a pretty good release. I mean, for the first release which is really only one track remixed once, with two demos, I found myself fairly impressed. It could've had more content, but this is a very good threshold for Death in Ecstasy. Also, go give them some likes on FaceBook. They only have six right now, and they are more than deserving a more than a few likes. GIVE THEM POPULARITY. Buy their album, give them support. They deserve it. May 27 2013