met3mpsyk6sis - Cycle 1.1: You Are Virus

met3mpsyk6sis is a fairly new project to the industrial wastes. The name of the project comes from metempsychosis, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the passing of the soul at death into another body either human or animal". This, according to the project's founder, is what they hope to achieve with industrial music in their state of Iowa. The industrial scene is bare and the lack of acts means that someone needs to bring our darkened electronic scene around. The mission is bold and et3mpsyk6sis' statement bolder. They state that they, "hope to show that there's more to music than what's on the radio and that there's lots of it." Their upcoming remix album "Cycle 1.1: You Are Virus" certainly is an extension of that philosophy as it brings the title track under the hand of eight other artists. 



I'm going to begin by analyzing the single in its original format. 'You Are Virus' is a song heavily influenced by electro-industrial without swaying away from its take on metal. The song begins with deeply-pitched sampled voices and lo-fi buzzes and guitar. Around the fifty second mark, the vocals kick in with digital distortion and touches. My main complaint from the song, though, comes from how muddy it can become. The amount of effects that are placed on the vocals completely overtake every single beat and rhythm that's present on the song. Rather than enjoying the wicked electronics and ominous synths that met3mpsyk6sis slams out so well, I'm left with a noise wall of incoherent lyrics. The parts that do have the vocals removed are pleasant enough, so I'm left in a pickle. While I enjoy the instrumentals, I do not enjoy the vocals. 

There is an in-house remix that comes in later on the album from met3mpsyk6sis simply titled "You Are Virus (met3mpsyk6sis remix)". However, what I enjoyed from the original track is held back. Rather than coming full force with those electronic and dirty industrial elements that I enjoyed so much, I'm left with an extremely stripped down, almost demo-like track. Ironically enough, what's done well are the vocals. Rather than containing the noise wall effects that I abhorred, they are more clear and concise with a simple echo effect on them. If the vocals from this remix were paired with the instrumentals from the original, I think met3mpsyk6sis would have been sitting on industrial gold.

The remix album also comes with eight other remixes from various artists and I would like to point ouy a few that I found to be the best of the bunch. This starts with Ripley Sterling's remix of 'You Are Virus'. Like a prayer being heard by a foreign God, Sterling took the wicked industrial elements from the track and mixed them with met3mpsyk6sis' clean vocals. Taking a stompier approach, I think Sterling created the perfect blend of gritty industrial and stylized vocals that met3mpsyk6sis was aiming for to begin with. It's a completely coherent piece and one that I would easily come back to over and over again. And, of course this review would not be complete without mentioning The Gothsicles remix. What else would Brian Graupner do other than turn the track into a funky, dark electro dance song? These are the types of remixes that I love; ones that can completely re-imagine another's work with ease. Well done to both these artists.

There were also a couple of remixes that I did not enjoy. These Violent Delights' remix for the song started off well enough with bits of noise building up to the bulk of the song. But when the forty-second mark hit I was thrust into a complete mess of a remix. I believe These Violent Delights were attempting to make a noisy, industrial affair. But what I was left with is a blistering mass of chaos and confusion. After my third go with this album, I found myself repeatedly skipping this song. I also was not a fan of Vvirtual Vviolence's remix of 'You Are Virus'. While it wasn't terrible, I felt as if the constant waning of the guitar buried a lot of the other beats beneath it. The percussion could have had a bit more of a boom, and the vocals were underneath water for the entirety of the remix. 

Remix albums have always been a hit-or-miss affair for me on a track-by-track basis. And "Cycle 1.1: You Are Virus" is no different. I am not going to sit here and tell you to swear off met3mpsyk6sis; that would be a sin. What I would say is to give the project time to build up and come out with a new release that takes what they're already incredibly skilled at and make a cohesive piece of industrial music. I know they can do it; "Cycle 1.1: You Are Virus" shows that they are on the cusp of brilliance. And even if you can't get into the original song like I did, there are plenty of remixes to enjoy on the album that are worth your time. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Feb 14 2021