Returning to Gehenna
N. Ron Halliburton | St. Charles, MO | 12/25/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Buy this. Buy this NOW, darn you. Even if it IS an import. Sounding as somewhat of a cross between singer Carl McCoy's solo NEFILIM AD (Zoon) project and the classic Dawnrazor-era songwriting style, FOTN are in that rare class of bands like KILLING JOKE that turn old-age crankiness into musical brutality. Imagine Fear Factory doing a cover of "Preacher Man" or "The Watchman." That's the idea here: the old-style cowboys-from-hell guitar-work with that abrasive post-industrial edge. You need this. The world needs this. Warehouses need it to scare away rats. Attention Catholic School kids: Word has it that this EP has the ability to destroy nuns, if used properly. The forthcoming album should be no different. The release will kick the false teeth from the aging jowls of Andrew Eldritch and Peter Murphy, and any other musical contemporary who has made the mistake of getting soft and wistful with age. No wistfulness, here, kiddies. If Westworld was located in the deepest, vilest pit of Gehenna, this band's albums would be playing on the elevator ride down. This is evil musick for fiendish people, and the best reunion of the year for fans of Goth, Industrial, Metal, and the wailing of the infernal forces of Hell incarnate."
Baiting...
noktyrne | the east | 08/08/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"while not completely unique in sound... there has always been a sense of mystery and mysticism about the neph' not found in the music of contemporaries smith, eldritch or hussey. considered less than serious thematically by critics, the band delivered alternately driving and darkly fluid sounds from 1985 until 1991. after the fracture of the original 'fields of the nephilim', songwritier and vocalist, carl mccoy, developed a heavier and more grating sound with his own 'nefilim'(1995-6). now, following repeated delays and promising rumours, dr. mccoy has at last allowed us to know he truly is yet creating, or altering perhaps, his aural and intellectual assault on willing ears. in this return to the original concept, he has brought the more metallic crunch of the nefilim along with him. itis interesting to consider how an entire album of the merging of the two sounds might be, but unfortunately, this breach of silence is only a reworking of two classic fields moments: 'darkcell' and 'trees come down'(both 1985). while both of these have always been faster and harder than, for example, the more languidly seductive elizium(1990),the influence of the heavier progression of the nefilim is plainly evident here. slightly different, but nothing new. regardless, itis good to have a taste from the shadowed sessions of mccoy and the others. there is a paradox of divinity and doom about the neph', of rare strength. perhaps mccoy's dogged perfectionism in the studio willnot deprive our waiting ears much longer. but...i willnot hold my breath."
Track Listings (2) - Disc #1