52 minutes, 8 seconds

Front Line Assembly
Caustic Grip

Sometimes I wonder what younger listeners today think of so-called classics of the industrial genre. Do they sound dull and dated? Or still vibrant and exciting? Caustic Grip was the then-current Front Line Assembly album when I began listening to industrial music back in college. It wasn't the first FLA tape (yes, cassette tape--stop your snickering) I purchased--that would have been State of Mind--but it was considered state of the art back in those days. And I thought it was the shit.

Still do, in some ways. I can't listen to "Overkill," for example, without the hair on the back of my neck going up, especially when the sample kicks in: "The first jolt of electricity was sent through his body at..." And without being overly distorted, Bill Leeb's vocals pack a lot of punch, not just in "Overkill" but also in songs like "Iceolate" and "Mental Distortion."

But how would a 21-year-old today, one who'd been raised on Agonoize, Hocico, and the rest of the modern "hellektro" cabal, hear Caustic Grip? Would it be like a young Snoop Dogg fan hearing Run-DMC for the first time? Or am I exaggerating the musical distance between 1990 and 2007?

Also today:

52:07 Current 93, Live at Bar Maldoror
52:06 PAL, Modus
52:05 Einstürzende Neubauten, Strategies Against Architecture II (CD 2 of 2)
52:05 Rajna, The Door of Serenity
52:03 VNV Nation, Judgement
52:02 Ophelia's Dream, Not a Second Time
New arrival! 56:42 Grimbergen, A Lonely Place
52:02 Raison d'Être, Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations
52:02 Single Gun Theory, Exorcise This Wasteland
52:01 Gjallarhorn, Sjofn
52:01 :Wumpscut:, Evoke

67 minutes, 47 seconds

Front Line Assembly
Epitaph

Shouldn't only posthumous albums be titled Epitaph? I mean, what comes after an epitaph? Exhumation? I quibble. Truth is, I think this is a great album, and I'm normally more a fan of FLA's earlier material. (And when I say earlier, I mean State of Mind early.)

If only they were better spellers. (Track 10: "Existance"?)

Also today:

67:44 Painbastard, Overkill
67:43 Vas, Offerings
67:39 Synaesthesia, Desideratum (CD 1 of 2)

74 minutes, 36 seconds

Front Line Assembly
Explosion

No real reason to own this compilation disc if you already have the singles from the Hard Wired and [FLA]vour of the Weak albums, but it does at least collect the B-sides in a tidy package. Which makes me think it's long past due for Bill Leeb to release a coherent box set of some sort that gathers all the rarities and unreleased material from over the (now 20 some-odd) years of Front Line's existence.

Or is that more difficult than it sounds? Do the various labels that have released his music have rights to it that would prevent a worthwhile box set from being produced? All I know is, I don't have "Virus" and would like to own it without (a) having to buy the CD single for just one song and (b) having to fish around for it on eBay.

Oh, yeah, and happy new year.

Also today:

74:31 Obszön Geschöpf, Son of Evil