Band: Voltera
Album: The Birth of the End of the World
Genre: Industrial Metal
Release: 2010
Length: 54 minutes
Tracks: 13
Country of Origin: Australia
First of all, I would like to give some mad props to Tony Hawk's Project 8 for introducing me to this band. In retrospect, a lot of the games in that series always seem to have amazing soundtracks. Especially THUG2. Damn. Anyway, I figured I'd give Voltera's second release a review. First of all I'd like to point out that this band is heavily underrated, however, they're not that well-known, but definitely should be.
This is probably one of the darkest industrial albums with a female singer that I have heard since The Birthday Massacre released 'Violet' back in 2004.Not only does Voltera's singer Jessica have an amazing clean voice, her growls can almost instantly give you the chills, especially after the twist in the opening track. The opening track, "Do What Your Daddy Say" was originally on their debut EP, 'Exorsister,' but was the only one reworked for this release. (I honestly wish they would've reworked 'Saints and Ladders' for this album as well... Love that song.) Anyways, "Do What Your Daddy Say" starts off with a repeating drumroll, followed by a higher octave bass, low clean guitar, clean vocals, and some percussion, but in the matter of 23 seconds the illusion breaks off into a heavy chorus with distorted guitars and Jessica's signature growls. This immediately sets a tone for the rest of the album, always having a rapid yet smooth transition between clean vocals and growls, but it all flows really well.
Songs like "It Beats For You," "Pyramids of Mexico," "Exorsister," "Perpetual Motion," and "Psychopathia Sexualis" really set quite an experimental industrial tone, with enough synth layered in it that it could potentially kick your fucking teeth in. At the same time, there are some songs that match quite a dark, haunting tone that even when teamed with some clean vocals, they could still give you some serious chills. "Death of Innocence" contains the lyrics as being portrayed from a child: "Mommy, I don't want to be a skeleton, Mommy, I don't want to die." If that's not dark enough for you then you most likely need to get your head checked. The ending track "Captain" is probably the most chill-inducing one of them all, especially because the sound of that piano throughout the song is incredibly spooky.
Also it seems that every album I've reviewed thus far has an instrumental on it. The instrumental on this album is called "11:11," wherein the time matches the song, and my God, it may not be Maggot Brain or an incredibly long solo track, but it is definitely one of the most experimental pieces I will gladly listen to in one sitting, even repeatedly. (Note that I said repeatedly. I still think 'Delirium Cordia' by Fantomas is one of the craziest fucking things I've ever heard, much respect, but I'm not going to listen to some 75-minute instrumental on repeat.) The song is constantly changing within itself, and every following step that it takes does exactly what the rest of the album has done. It gives you chills. Although it ends abruptly with the sound of an alarm clock, it's a pretty solid intro into the next track "Rocking Horse." With that, I'd like to say I have to give some respect for these guys using a sax rather awesomely, both in "Rocking Horse" and in "Knees," which I believe are the only songs from this album with a music video.
In short, I love this album from start to finish, it's dark, foreboding, haunting, sometimes very fast-paced, and essentially one hell of a ride. I personally recommend the shit out of it to all industrial fans and experimental fans. They have all of their songs from this release on available for streaming on their ReverbNation page.
Overall Rating: 5/5
Review by Paradox
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