Everything Goes Cold - Vs. General Failure

Everything Goes Cold is a newish project by Eric Gottesman, of Psyclon Nine and See Colin Slash fame. I was curious about Everything Goes Cold when I saw their mascot whilst online browsing and discovered a demented refrigerator named "Edgar G Chillingston." This intrigues me, without even listening to the music i had already loved the visual aesthetic, and began to contemplate how one marries a fridge. Turns out you can't make love to Edgar though, on the cover art he's either viciously running (on the E.P) or viciously cowering before general failure (on the album).

In any case, I promptly paid for the album and began to download. The second thing that struck me like an abusive husband right after Edgar had his sick thrill was the song titles. I looked with confusion and wonderment as titles such as "I sold your organs on the black market to finance the purchase of a used minivan" and "Bitch stole my time machine" appeared on my iTunes, like a horrible Tim Burton animated film where Edgar steals organs from Johnny Depp. Two paragraphs in and i've listed two reasons to check out this project without the actual music contributing at all.

After the album finished downloading and I was anxious to hear how Eric and Edgar would translate in sound, I nervously plugged my laptop to my stereo and hit play. The first track... surprised me. It was a small ambient piece, and threw me out of my giggle fits from the cover and titles. Not to say it was bad, it was unexpected like a crowbar lobotomy. I decided to browse some of the tracks before committing to a "start to finish" reviewing process. A track called "The droids your looking for" flaunting its star wars name towards me like a stripper in a therapists office. So I turned it on to see what it was like.

My experience can be best summarized as how the song starts.
"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the june-a and the ROBOTS!
Intergalactic proton powered electrical tentacled advertising droids!"
The sonic skullfuck had begun almost as soon as it started, and I was taken in like George Michael in the men's room. One thing that stands out about Everything Goes Cold is their eclectic use of samples, when i heard a beastie boys sample inserted into this track, this is when i stood up and said "This band are gobsmackingly great! I have to listen to more right now!"

And so I did. And the more I listened, the more taken in i became, like George Michael in the police station after he left the men's room. However the more I listened I began to enjoy the spectacle less and look into the technical parts. The vocals were clean and easy to understand (a definite plus) and the lyrical content on some of the songs almost made me shoot milk, but it all seemed somewhat too fluid. Sometimes I had difficultly telling when songs changed because of how fluid it all was. Not that its a bad thing, but when I burnt my CD to play when driving with a friend, I got 3 seconds of the song i wanted alongside another song instead.

But the question that has to come is "Is 'Vs. General Failure' good?" and i can answer simply. If you like industrial music this is good as you can get. The guitars slash through the beats, the electronics compliment the music rather then imposing onto it, and the vocals gel together, bringing together something similar rearranged in some plastic wrap and filed in a demented fridge. If you like music thats hard, but a bit silly as well, this album is for you. And if you take music seriously, you may still enjoy this, but who will laugh when Edgar The Organ Harvester comes for us?

Pro's: Perfect quality, Clever lyrics and samples, Unique approach.
Cons: They wont see this review. (Or will they? Editor's Note)
Should I (The reader) Purchase This?: Yes, yes you should. May 06 2011