Demo Title: Too Far Down the Rabbit Hole
Band Members: Vash - vocals, programs, guitars, bass; XenoLith - guitars; Malena - bass, piano
Location: Newport Beach, CA
Rating: 3 Skulls
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Band Name: Industrial Playground
Demo Title: Too Far Down the Rabbit Hole Band Members: Vash - vocals, programs, guitars, bass; XenoLith - guitars; Malena - bass, piano Location: Newport Beach, CA Rating: 3 Skulls
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Redwolff's Review:
You've got to be pretty confident in your abilities when you put out a fourteen-song demo CD. That's a long fucking album for a band that might totally suck, and it always fills me with dread when I see such an extensive track listing. My fear was compounded by the "I heart the pitch modulator on my keyboard" intro, "Slipping." Fortunately the rest of the disc, while trying my patience simply by the sheer length of it, was not as bad as I had expected. It's not great though.This three-piece, pictured in their promo materials looking like a Hot Topic fever dream, play in a style I'm not entirely sure how to describe. Part darkwave, part industrial, part plain old hard rock, Industrial Playground never get very heavy - the fact that every track is suffused by milquetoast drum programming might have something to do with it. They don't have a live drummer, which is fine, but there's no reason not to be more aggressive with the drum machine, look at Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. The songs are all about the same mid-paced tempo, too slow to be danceable, and too fast to have that eeriness of doom bands like My Dying Bride. Most of the songs are structured in the same way, verse-chorus-verse-chorus, with no bridges, and with the guitar and bass chords following the singer's notes exactly on every chorus. I get a little tired of those technical bands that try to stuff as many notes as possible into every measure, but this, being at the opposite end of the spectrum, may be a little too simplistic. It's hard for me to tell if there are effects on the vocals or if the singer just has an uncanny knack for sounding like he's under water - perhaps it's just a particularly slow, wavering vibrato that gives his voice an almost Bauhaus-era Peter Murphy quality. If they laid some money down on a more sophisticated keyboard they could lose the cheesy techno sound that detracts from the minor chords and dark lyrics.
After re-reading the above paragraph, I am starting to wonder why I don't hate this group. I think I have a soft spot for those bands that combine electronica with heavier music, although I prefer an emphasis on "heavier" - ...And Oceans these guys are not. They don't seem to know quite what they are yet, but I sense a potential there. Industrial Playground need to improve their songwriting and drum programming, buy a new keyboard, and either speed up or slow down, anything but this middle-of-the-road shit. The outro "Delusions Complete," another instrumental, is the most inspired piece on this CD. Hang some testicles on Too Far Down the Rabbit Hole and you could really have something.
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