Trench Run - Truth Love Battle

Andrew Hunter should be a name familiar to those who are fans of both the AnalogueTrash label and Atomzero, as he is the vocalist for the latter project and is now signed to the label under his solo name Trench Run. Trench Run has its roots in 2002, where he wrote and recorded his first album Atlas of the Human Anatomy. After playing a few live shows, his second album Industrial Complex was released in 2006, but the project was put on hold in 2008 for the last time as he went on to pursue other dreams (which included scoring the feature film Mr. Viral). 

Come to more recent times, and Hunter tagged along with Atomzero as the lead vocalist in 2015. Recognizing his talent, Analogue Trash grabbed him while they could and now he has a cassette out on their label titled Truth Love Battle. This album is inspired by three different decades of music: 70s disco, 80s new wave, and 90s industrial rock. I'm just sad that he also doesn't pull inspiration from every other decade in the 1900s (though I only joke about that...Although a crossover between swing music and synthrock sounds awesome). 


I wasn't too huge a fan of the cover art of the album as it looks like a placeholder Desktop background Microsoft would put on Windows. It's a flower with an insect on it with the background blurred out. This has nothing to do with the music itself - as that's what really counts - but when it comes to having a physical copy of an album sitting on my shelf, I like it to look pretty so I'll enjoy myself while looking it over. 

Now, Trench Run is very good at making music; the production value is there, his rhythms are solid, and there is naught ever a sound that seems out of place. 'Where Dreams Never Go' is perhaps the epitome of his talent on Truth Love Battle, as the synthrock inspired ballad is hit with some disco chimes and solid dance synthlines that roll with the awesome lyrical content. Hunter's voice has never sounded better, either, even more so than over on Atomzero; his emotions are really able to come through on this album. 

However, the only real problem that I'm finding on this album are the lack of hit songs. As I said, 'Where Dreams Never Go' is absolutely fantastic, but I can't really point to any other tracks on the album that I fell in love with. It's not Hunter's ability to make good music that's in question here, it's his ability to make smash hits that's in question. I would like to see Hunter absolutely dominate with this album; he has the talent in his fingertips. That much shows with Truth Love Battle, I just think he needs to refine his technique. 

Under his project of Trench Run, Hunter has the potential to make an awesome synthrock soundtrack. Once he sees his potential to his fullest, I have no doubt Hunter will be able to rake in and fetch an audience. As of right now, though, Truth Love Battle is not the album that will have listeners coming back for more. 
Mar 26 2016