Band: Vicious Alliance

Album: Humanity Bleeds Demo

Album Year: 2006

Label: self released

Genre(s): Terror EBM, Futurepop, EBM

Band Website: www.myspace.com/viciousallianceebm

Review Date: 01/07

Rating: 8.5/10

Track list:

1. This is a War Now!

2. Hikikomori

3. World Consumer

4. I Am Obsolete

5. Social Conciousness

6. Disease of Rotten Minds

Recently, the PA based Aggrotech/Futurepop band Vicious Alliance has been accruing quite a fanbase. along with a name for themselves in the EBM underground. I hear the name thrown around quite a bit these days, and the question is does their music live up to the hype? The answer is...actually, yes.

I feel like I have heard a lot of EBM, and this is by far one of the best demos I have come across. The music on here, while keeping true to the style of EBM, really shows that it has formed own identity. Vicious Alliance use all the elements of great terror ebm – strong catchy leads, huge pounding drums, distorted vocals and samples about factories and politics, but they  keep it fresh. You’ve heard all these elements before, but you haven’t heard them like this. One element that will definitely set Vicious Alliance apart from just about every band in the genre is that they use both male (distorted) and female (sung) vocals about equally in all of the songs. The female vocals are a great addition to the standard EBM formula, especially considering that these are actually sung and not just spoken like almost every female fronted ebm project. I think they use this vocal element to their advantage and both sets of vocals are always set in the right places.

Ok now to break down the album musically…first the bad news: “Social Consciousness”. The only real downside to this album is that some of the songs sound noticeably dated. The one that majorly falls into this category is “Social Consciousness”. The low end is too high and overwhelms the synths and the vocal tracks. The female vocals on this track completely lack emotion and the distorted ones are inaudible. After a minute or so the track seems to drag on, being more or less the same thing forever. A couple of the other tracks fall victim to some of the same issues: vocals lacking emotion ( such as “World Consumer”) and occasionally the songs will drag. Luckily those are really the only downsides to the whole demo (it’s a demo after all).

The good news is, well…everything else. Although while listening to this album you can start to see which songs were made first and which were made later, the good part is that as the songs get newer they get better. Songs like “Disease of Rotten Minds” and “I Am Obsolete” are absolutely killer. The synths are fucking catchy and the sound is completely original; I can honestly say that none of these songs rip off any other band out there and they all sound legitimately “Vicious Alliance-y”. The songs are quite upbeat and they are all very club friendly (as in…great for dancing while having dynamic content). The drums on this album sound fantastic; the bass kick is always powerful and in your face while leaving room for the other instruments. The sequencing and production is, as a whole, done well, and with the exception of a track or two, the levels are always correct and you can clearly hear both sets of vocals and each instrument and beat doing its thing. Even though all of the songs are upbeat, they do not lack variety. There are songs such “I Am Obsolete” that are a bit slower and structured differently to give it a more emotional feel, as well as tracks like “This is a War Now!” that have a more political/militant feel. Just about all of the songs open with a sample, but the samples used have both great sound quality, and meaningful content. What is said in the sample just about always pertains to the track; they aren’t just there to sound evil. Another thing that I really enjoyed about this album is the lyrical content. Unfortunately I don’t have the lyrics to every song, but unlike a lot of new bands out there, they cover legitimate social and political topics instead of the trite and meaningless shit which EBM seems to be getting accustomed to.

I honestly think that if Vicious Alliance continues to do what they are doing, though they might not change the genre, they will become something of a household name in a club near you very soon. If you are a fan of talented, hard EBM, then I urge you to check out this band (although you probably already have), and you will not be disappointed. My only suggestion is that they include more variety on their full-length, meaning some slow tracks or some tracks that are a bit less based on standard EBM. ‘People started pollution…people can stop it.’