53 minutes, 6 seconds

Necro Facility
The Black Paintings

Naming your band "Necro Facility" pretty much limits you to either the industrial, goth, or death metal genre. It's kind of like naming your daughter "Amber"--she's pretty much destined to be a porn star. I mean, how about an industrial band called the Tennessee Boys or Bill Leeb and His Vancouver Trio?

Which makes me think that it's been a long time since a band in the industrial realm has really played around with our expectations, visually if not sonically. In fact, the only example I can really think of offhand is Throbbing Gristle, with the 20 Jazz Funk Greats album. The cover showed them all dressed in white sweaters, posing on a hillside, as though they were a vaguely hippie-ish '60s singing group, perhaps late-period Mamas and the Papas.

It was such a cool idea, and to my recollection it hasn't been repeated. Can you imagine, for example, the guys from Funker Vogt dressing up like Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus, with checkered shirts and cowboy hats, on the cover of their next album? It would completely confound expectations. Very high-concept.

OK, on second thought, it's possible I've had too much caffeine today.

Also today:

53:06 This Morn' Omina, Les Passages Jumeaux: Le 25ième Degré
53:04 Bio-Tek, The Ceremony of Innocence
53:04 Caul, The Golden Section
53:04 Mortiis, Født til å Herske
53:03 Out Out, Virtual Sound Images
53:02 Electro Assassin, Jamming the Voice of the Universe
53:02 Klinik, Face to Face & Fever