Cyberwarmachine

Album Review

Finnish industrial thrashers Scorngrain leave little to the imagination with their aptly named debut Cyberwarmachine, which strikes a fair balance between analog and digital recording techniques with its nine, mostly bite-sized chunks of mechanized death and black metal. Which is to say that, for all of their rampant precision, these tracks never lose touch with the human element provided by vocalist TwentynineA's throat-lacerating screeches, occasional baritone harmonies, and even odd stab at rapping (see opener "24-7 Hell," and "Dawn of Hypocrite God"); as well as the always dense and crushingly heavy guitar riffs performed by the spectacularly named Dr. Mike Lederfaust. Sure, programmed synthesizers are rarely absent either, but they tend to punctuate, rather than dominate, the proceedings, and range, to varying degrees, from layered symphonic flourishes (the title track, extended closer "No Funeral for the Last"), to danceable synth beats ("Flesh Means Pain," "New Paradise (Bukkake Remix)"), to amusingly carnival-esque, harpsichord-like passages ("Blank," "4D Religion"). Admittedly, with the exception of the techno/black metal flurry of "Killing Breed," rarely are the sum of these parts truly awe-inspiring from a compositional standpoint, but Scorngrain's consistency of songwriting and vision tends to carry the day anyway, and can only bode well for their future.