Combichrist_We_Love_You_Cover_ArtBeing a fan of Combichrist’s brand of aggrotech, I was massively disappointed with the direction they took on last year’s album and computer game soundtrack ‘No Redemption’, where they eschewed their usual aggressive techno-industrial stance in favour of tepid and underwhelming metal by numbers. Upon reflection I realised that it may not have been entirely the band’s decision to come up with such a disappointingly generic offering, (although I get the impression that Andy LaPlegua is not the kind of guy who would abandon his artistic principles in search of the almighty dollar), so I was curious to see the direction that ‘We Love You’ was going to take and see if it would answer some questions about what we can expect from Combichrist in future.

When bands experiment with their sound it usually goes one of two ways; moderate success or massive failure, and ‘No Redemption’ fell well and truly into the latter category. It was therefore with crossed fingers and hope that I pressed play believing that LaPlegua and Co had actually managed to find redemption after all, along with a collection of better songs. After getting through the introduction to ‘We Were Made To Love You’, my head and heart sank as the opening bars gave birth to what sounded like a natural evolution of the sound of the previous album. Disjointed, difficult to listen to and utterly uninspiring, LaPlegua flatline rants over buzzsaw guitars with gnarly electronic backing. It’s an improvement over the ‘No Redemption’ material, but it’s also a long way from being enjoyable and more importantly a long way from the catchiness of their earlier work. Hang on a minute though…what’s this? Suddenly with ‘Every Day Is War’ we are thrown straight back into traditional Combichrist territory with bouncy, angry, catchy material. This one could sit well on any of their earlier albums and traditional fans will lap it up. So what gives?

The juxtaposition of the first two tracks serve to set the tone of the schizophrenic nature of this release as they cover every angle from their very early sound through the popularity of the late noughties to their metal leanings as well as a few other surprises. The repetitive yet addictive nature of ‘Can’t Control’ and the raw nature of ‘Satan’s Propaganda’ have elements of ‘The Joy Of Gunz’ about them, while at the same time retaining that aggressive edge of recent times. ‘Maggots At The Party’ sounds like Viking Skull covering ‘I Like The Way You Move’ and is a surprisingly effective bounce-fest. In total contrast there is the moody acoustic strains of ‘The Evil In Me’, which brought to mind a number of mid 90’s gothic bands, but most notably The Merry Thoughts. This is something I never expected to hear from Combichrist as they tackle this with patience and maturity, although with this album you should learn to expect the unexpected as following track ‘Fuck Unicorns’ takes us into Daft Punk territory. Things take a final interminable twist with the terrible minimalist acoustic student protest song at the end that may very well have a good message, but is delivered in such a cack-handed manner as to nullify any impact it should carry.

Overall, this album confuses the hell out of me. Where ‘No Redemption’ was a Combichrist album that sounded nothing like Combichrist, this one sounds like a mix tape. There are so many different styles and influences at play here, it makes for a massively disjointed if reasonably enjoyable listening experience. The biggest problem here is that as fun as it can be, this album has no identity or personality and that makes it difficult to connect with. As soon as you settle into one mind-set and start to enjoy it, it rips the rug out from beneath you and starts off in a completely different direction. In some ways this keeps your attention and in others it’s incredibly frustrating. I give this album a reasonable mark on account of the fact that Combichrist fans will enjoy parts of this album immensely, but it’s likely you have you both dancing and shouting “Fuck Off” at the stereo in equal measures. I suspect that is exactly what Mr LaPlegua was aiming for.

(7/10 Lee Kimber)

http://www.combichrist.com