Artist: Mordacious
CD Title: This Emptiness
Label: Telegrammetry Records
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 11-1-06

A solid effort from newcomer Mordacious, this album doesn't quite break new ground in the terror EBM scene but still manages to avoid most of the pitfalls. With high-BPM drum machines, speedy synth lines, and thickly processed vocals, such tracks as "Dream Girl" and "Sorrow" recall genre stalwarts like Tactical Sekt, although Mordacious's lyrical approach tends more toward a generalized misanthropy than prophetic warnings about genetic manipulation. The downside to this type of music, though, is that it can get repetitive. Unlike Hocico or YelworC, Mordacious doesn't bother with long atmospheric sections; it's pretty much a solid hour or so of dance tracks. By tenth track "Die With Me," this starts to get tiring. Thankfully, there are some offerings that deviate a bit from the standard formula, like the slower, more snarling "Failure" and the jittery "Shame," which features a cleaner vocal approach alongside nervewracking synths and hyperactive drum patterns. Still, there's nothing like a solid, unabashed club assault, and this album has plenty of them. "Burn It Down" is hardly Shakespeare, with a chorus that goes, in part, "Burn it down, Burn it down / Burn it to the fucking ground," but good luck finding a better track to stomp your combat boots to. Mordacious has plenty of technical expertise, and hopefully the project's next release will break out of the terror EBM mold a bit more, but for now this is one brutal collection of club candy. Fans of Tactical Sekt, Grendel, and Suicide Commando will especially enjoy this one.

Visit Mordacious online at www.mordacious.com for more.