Other than a stupid blogwar egged on by the extremely annoying and increasingly retarded Patterico, there's not much going on today. So I figured I'd bang out a music review. And since I seem to refer to it endlessly, today we'll look at Everybody Hates You by Combichrist. This one's dedicated to you, Patterico.

Combichrist is a side project of the prolific Andy LaPlegua. His other projects include Icon of Coil (futurepop), Panzer AG (power noise and industrial rock), and Scandy (haven't listened to it yet). The guy gets around. Combichrist, like most of Andy's bands, doesn't take itself too seriously. They're all about sex, drugs, and industrial - with a good helping of tongue-in-cheek ultra-violence on the side. The style is basically power noise, with some doses of EBM to spice things up. Sorta like a speedball. Andy calls this mix of rythmic noise and aggro-EBM "Techno Body Music," or TBM.

Many of the songs don't have vocals, making use of sound clips/samples and synthesized speech. Those songs that Andy actually sings on usually only have one or two verses, which he croaks out in harsh monotone. The tracks are mostly rythym, with heavy, aggressive basslines and militaristic 4/4 distorted beats accentuated with bits of ambient noise. The occassional whining high-end noise is used to provide something approaching a melody in several songs, just to break up the monotony and add an element of EBM to the noise structure.

The first song, "This Shit will Fuck You Up," starts off the album with a bang. It's like a five minute long explosion of bass and heavy rythym punctuated by repetitive, explicit lyrics read by a female speech synthesizer. This shit, truly, will fuck you up. It's noisy and loud and even obnoxious, but it's gloriously bad ass, too. Make sure you're on a road with a high speed limit if listening in the car.

Amazingly, this long album continues to deliver more of the same intense, dance-floor happy, aggression without wimping out. The skull-pounding "Enjoy the Abuse" is the first chance you'll get to hear Andy actually "sing." The lyrics include such idyllic refrains like "You will enjoy the abuse / cause you've got nothing to lose / I swear I'll fistfuck your brain / until I'm smiling again / Everybody hates you." Does it make sense? Hell no! But it sounds freaking awesome and makes you want to break your foot off in some chump's ass. Is anything else really required?

"Rain of Blood" features more of Andy's lyrical work and some good piercing high-end. "Blut Royale" is the 12" single for this album and probably the most pop-accessible track. Which isn't really saying much. It's not my favorite, though, but people who like traditional pop structures with choruses and crap like that will probably appreciate it more. "God Bless" features a guest female vocalist reading off the names of famous serial killers. "Happy Fucking Birthday" is a fun party song voiced by a speech synth that repeats "Birthday Boy / Birthday Girl / Combichrist / Evil Nice / Happy Fucking Birthday" over and over again. One of these days, I'm going to play this one at my birthday party and force all my horrified guests to listen to it and sing along. "This is my Rifle" shifts away from vocals or speech synths and makes extensive use of sound bites from Full Metal Jacket. The album ends with "Without Emotions," a song similar to the first track in that the lyrics are voiced by a female speech synthesizer.

The original European release from Out of Line has an entire extra CD, most of which (I've read) is rhythmic noise and long ambient industrial. I would love to get my hands on it, though.

If you don't like aggro EBM and aren't used to reptitive, noisy music with very little in the way of vocals or melody, you'll probably hate this. However, I bought this album fairly early in recent explorations into the new generation of industrial EBM and it simply blew me away on the first listen. So I don't think you need an especially attuned ear to appreciate it. I suspect that if you like "the heavy shit" (you know what I mean) - metal, industrial, hardcore rap, DNB, aggro, whatever - you'll love this album. If catchy riffs, snappy beats, and singable choruses are your thing, look somewhere else (like in your Grandma's attic... ha!).

Combichrist has been gaining quite a few American fans, and they are touring again soon with a live band. When playing the songs live, Andy sings the sampled bits, which is pretty cool. I hope to catch them in either Jacksonville or Atlanta.

Their latest EP is alright. It's called Get Your Body Beat. The title song is excellent, though it's more aggro and somewhat less unique than the songs on Everybody Hates You. There are several remixes of the song by electro and power noise artist like Manufactura, KMFDM, and Spetsnaz. The other songs on the EP are fairly forgettable, though, so I would recommend waiting for the full-length album unless you're a huge Combichrist fan. "Get Your Body Beat" is going to be featured in an upcoming movie called The Gene Generation. Here's the video:



'Til next time, don't let anyone fistfuck your brain!