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Death is raining upon us.
Once again the banality of evil is plowing through lives and land.
It comes in the shape of man, a mushroom cloud in trousers.
What was first an artistic experiment, investigating childhood fears.
The dark cloud on the horizon. Looming over us always.
Became reality.
These six tracks are instruments of terror.
Focusing on the inhuman barbarism of humanity.
Deafening, blinding, four minute-warnings of heavy electronic mayhem.
Programming the synths like Stalin’s organ.
Causing radiation sickness.
Sonic assault of the mind and body.
Hear the siren songs. Sex on red alert.
Beware and behave.
The Road to Nuclear Holocaust has never been closer.
Devastating zynth-slaughter debut LP by Sweden Ä.I.D.S. Six tracks of deafening, blinding, four minute-warnings of heavy electronic mayhem.
Our take: It’s kind of weird that we’re looking at two industrial-tinged hardcore records by bands whose names are acronyms this week, but I guess sometimes Ä.I.D.S. and L.O.T.I.O.N. arrive in the same week and you just have to roll with it. I don’t want to get into too detailed of a comparison between the two records because they’re very different and don’t seem in dialog with one another in any substantial way, but one subtle yet noticeable difference is that while L.O.T.I.O.N. feels like a pop record with its chanted choruses and danceable beats, Ä.I.D.S. feels more like a rock record that’s built around riffs. A lot of the riffs remind me of Discharge songs like “State Violence, State Control,” elongated musical phrases that rely on chugging palm muting. We used to have this joke in one of my old bands that some riffs make you feel like you’re riding a chopper over the horizon at sunset, and that’s the case with a lot of these, giving them that badass “Motorcharged” feel so many bands aim for. Even better, while those longer riffs were a sign of Discharge’s imminent decline, Ä.I.D.S. is at pains to keep things maximally heavy and brutal. Everything is big and heavy, with the pounding drum machine rhythms and synth squelches pushing the vibe to something between Mad Max and cyberpunk. For something so gnarly and punishing, it’s a breezy listen… which makes sense because this is, at its core, a 6-song 45rpm hardcore EP, albeit one that elaborates on the form significantly.