Band: Dioxyde

Album: Social Phobia

Album Year: 2006

Label:  Noise Terror Productions / Dependent

Genre(s): Dark Electro

Website: www.dioxyde.de

Tracklisting:

I guess it’s a bit late to be reviewing this now, but I wanted to review Social Phobia because I feel that it showcases the positive results of a dark electro artist who is willing to push the boundaries of the genre a bit.

Now Social Phobia is definitely not your standard terror ebm or harsh electro album. It’s got a lot of elements of those, but it is so much more. Dioxyde utilizes elements of many kinds of ebm and fuses them into a unique blend of very dark and tortured harsh electro. Some of the tracks like ‘Words of Judas’ work on a something akin to a standard terror ebm formula with verses and choruses, but even still they deviate quite a bit. Dioxyde is a master at creating and sustaining dark atmospheres coupled with a driving beat and dynamic structure. The thing that I enjoy most about Dioxyde songs is how non- traditional they are. The first thing you will notice are the atypical synth sounds on this album. There are no generic Virus trance leads. Dioxyde uses a lot of strangely structured notes and changes up sounds and patterns very often so that the listener does not have time to get bored with one sound or rhythm. He also utilizes dynamic drum patterns and rhythmic elements. There are plenty of different beats and fills inside of each song, as well as a ton of small subtle clicks, beeps, buzzes, etc to embolden and solidify the atmosphere of the tracks. Some of the instrumental tracks sound as if they could be movie scores; this is perhaps the reason why he is so proficient at the creation of dark atmosphere. The tracks are also very different from one another; many different tempos and completely different types of sounds and song structures. However, despite containing so many different things, every song contains a kind of global uniformity…that is to say: they all have a genuinely “Dioxyde” sound.

There were only a couple of negative things that I found on this album. Some of the synths that he uses just end up sounding cheesy… in some instances I am expecting a brutal track but the goofiness of the atypical synths gets in the way (example: ‘Geist’). Also, although this has nothing to do with Dioxyde, I thought that the remixes were all very linear club-oriented terror ebm and none of them strongly utilize the vocals of the originals, which is very disappointing. However, they are still good remixes and probably sound fantastic in a club setting.

Bottom line is that Dioxyde shows a HUGE step forward from his debut album (more than I can say for so many bands) as well as for the genre of Dark Electro and I hope that a lot of other bands take notes and realize that there is so much more than can be done with this kind of music. If you haven't checked out this album than I urge you to and check out an example of a progressive dark electro artist.

-[.d4n b4rr3tt.]