Search - Front Line Assembly :: Fallout

FLA Unleashed!

ebmAddikt | Portland Oregon | 04/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are so many great mixes on Fallout, each having their own unique treatment, it's almost unexplainable how great this album really is! I have meriads of other FLA remix albums, and none compare to this one...granted, the remixes on Fallout are all taken from Artificial Soldier. Included on Fallout are other tracks that didn't make it on A.S. (Electric Dreams, Armageddon and Unconscious), so buying Fallout is a win/win situation. (Electric Dreams is phenominal!)



Kinda interesting, if you think about it, the album is divied-up into 3 new FLA tracks, 3 tracks remixed by FLA, 3 tracks remixed by other bands, and 3 tracks remixed by DJ's. Remixers include Combichrist, Covenant, Portion Control, Sebastian Komor from Icon of Coil and Monofader (and several other side projects), and others along with guest collaborators on drums and guitars. Convenant, naturally, remix "The Storm" for which Covenant vocalist Eskil Simonsson sings in.



This is what ebm is all about! A must have, and best of '07', pick it up!"

Pick this up!

nvcameron | Chicago, illinois USA | 04/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great remix album but the The 3 unreleased songs Electric Dreams, Armageddon and Unconscious are fantastic. Anyone using an mp3 player should add these 3 songs in between The Storm & Humanity. It makes Artificial Soldier a perfect album. Try it & see for yourself."

Armageddon definitely steals the show on this one!

Stephen J. White | Richmond, Virginia United States | 07/10/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"FLA has always included some good surprises on their singles, as well as their remix albums. Fallout is undeniably no exception, spanning over 10 tracks while featuring three brand new songs and several remixes for Artificial Soldier. Sadly however, Fallout is not without its flaws. While it does enter the record arena with copious offerings, some of the offerings end up sounding hollow and rushed. But what Fallout does have to offer that is worthwhile, quickly reassures the listener that FLA is still ready to hammer out an industrial masterpiece "in between" albums.



Armageddon could easily be said to the centerpiece of Fallout, and perhaps the main reason to justify buying the release. The sound of the song could be summed up as "very aggressive German Electro." The sound resembles that of a band such as E-Craft, but with FLA's own take on the genre. The songs lyrics are nothing special, since they consist of Bill Leeb's usual attempt at creating a rhyme scheme (it is interesting though that he threw in some of his native German language lyrics.) The sound on the song is what really makes it worth a listen. Armageddon features a full on grinding guitar assault mixed with some of the most aggressive synth work that Leeb has done in ages. It also has Leeb using much harsher vocal distortion than he has used in the past few years. All of the aforementioned culminates in one of the most delightful surprises that FLA has yet to produce since the song Anti (on the Maniacal single)!



While Armageddon is reason enough to buy the album, the other two new tracks, Electric Dreams and Unconscious do well on their own. Electric Dreams sounds like a song that could have belonged on either Implode or Epitaph, but its usage of electronics makes it more easily fitting for the Artificial Soldier era. Unconscious is also decent in its own right, but it's not as great of an instrumental/electronic landscape as Anti or Disseminate. Still, it captures a nice face paced EBM/cybernetic feel that FLA doesn't seem to really explore very often in this day and age.



As for the remixes on Fallout, listeners will most likely find half of them to be good while the other half will sound, as previously mentioned, rushed and hollow sounding. The most well thought out and produced remixes would be DJ(?) Acucrack's remix of Buried Alive, J. Inkel's remix of Social Enemy, Greg Reely's remix of Lowlife and FLA's own remix of Unleashed. Greg Reely especially does the listener a major service by taking Lowlife one-step further and "improves it" by adding onto Bill Leeb's vocal distortion and polishing up various parts of the track to give it and even more slick and powerful electronic sound. On the other hand, DJ(?) Acucrack's remix of Buried Alive is a welcome attempt at building on the song's drum and bass feel. Unfortunately, the song gets lost at certain parts due to losing momentum and seemingly dabbling around in experimentation. Still, the song is a valiant attempt at taking FLA and bringing them one step closer to the D&B genre.



Despite having a slew of unimpressive remixes, Fallout manages to come out ahead of the rest of many releases this year by offering up both some incredible takes on previous FLA tracks and some great new material. It is slightly disappointing due to the boring remixes but it is still very worth the price of admission for the new tracks, and if only one, definitely Armageddon.





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