Nekkro-Electro - Whoretopsy

Immediate suspicions tell me that this isn't going to be a fun ride. Nekkro-Electro are an Adelaide-based duo, citing influences from an almost exclusive spectrum of Industrial-Rock and Shock Rock.

With an EP entitled 'Whoretopsy' and a cover that quite frankly, is not up to the standards of a professional scene, there's a risk of these guys going into freefall before I even press play.

The first track on the demo is called 'Dead To You (Victim)' and is introduced with a layer of solo bass, kissed by some downtuned guitar work, and the vocals are as brutal as you'd expect from a gore band, leaving me to immediately consider this a cross between Cradle of Filth, Infra-Black, and Bile. It's not terrible per se - the vocals tend to just repeat the line 'Dead to you', but the accompaniment falls somewhere between unrealised potential and flat-lining.

'Verge of Insanity' starts off sounding MUCH more like earlier Ministry, the vocals are deranged but easily audible, and the lyrics are surprisingly pretty good. The Guitar on here is as sludgy Industrial has a right to be, and although something is very, very lacking, I can't dismiss this as quickly as I expected to, and i'm actually going to give it a full listen, twice - which is a first for a demo that I'm unsure about.

'Your Own Personal Hell' is in need of serious production - as a self-released demo I begrudge this duo nothing for having an outlet that isn't produced to a high standard, but this track above all others seems to suffer from the 'behind closed doors' echo. Again, I'm quite smitten with some of the ideas that the vocalist has, and I think finding the cohesion that they need to enhance their prospects should be their focus point here.

'Whispers of the Dead' crosses the line between Industrial Rock and Electro-Industrial, and is the most accessible track to the dancefloor collective, but again suffers from production issues that quite simply won't allow it to be DJ'ed anywhere without further revision.

'Darkwave Darkfable' and 'Tears in Rain' don't really do anything different, and although there's a lot of issues in this demo, I do realise that this was only just put together, and the band is still very, very new.

Sort out your production, and work a little bit more on uniting the instruments with the vocals, and this might go somewhere. It isn't terrible, it isn't bad. It just isn't at a point where it can go any further in this embryonic state.

I'll still listen again though, as it's littered with potential in many different areas. The ease of finding it will vary for each of you, however. Feb 20 2012