Released
1997
Label
Lateral Tension Productions
Reviewed by
Kim Alexander
Contact
Razor
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Last Edit/Update
19 May, 1998
Lateral Tension
Pressure Device
Track Listing
1. Pressure Device
2. Detox
3. Burning Eyes
4. Regress
5. Fractured
6. Trapped
7. Pain
8. Fear Killer
9. Inconsistencies
10. Cohorts
11. Omen
12. Burning Eyes (censored)
13. Fear Killer (censored)
14. Fractured (censored)
Lateral Tension
Razor
Vocals, Guitars, Sequence Manipulations,
Screams,
Surgical Instruments, Sutures, Restraints.
Malochi
Percussion, Synthetic Rendering, Continuity,
Layering, Dissection, Analysis
Lankhaar
Noise, Pharmaceuticals, Pathology,
Injections
Lateral Tension has put out some intensely fierce music with Pressure
Device. Sonic waves, aggro-electronics, wicked vocals and lyrics abound on this
release. Pressure Device is a pretty good example of what's to be unleashed on the
rest of the CD -- snappy clicking non-stop percussion, atomic whirrings of synths and
noise, and a dark brooding harmony in the background streamline the way for AJ
to scream his way through a vision of "Kill...in the night...Pain...when we
fight....". This track reminds me of early Front 242 percussion
wise, but infinitly more twisted with original sounds and vocals than 242 has done with
the same beats. Razor's heavily treated vocals are downright WICKED,
reminding me of some sort of beast perched atop a building at night, in a busy section of
a city, screaming out what it would do to its victim with a ferocity unleased only
by satan himself. Some scary stuff there...
"What the fuck are you
doing???", another one of many samples used by Lateral Tension in Burning
Eyes, eerie, pure electro-shock therapy. "I dont think the human mind is meant to
exhist in two different, eh, what ever you called it, Dimensions?". I am really
interested in and enjoy it when musicians sample vocals from film and integrate them into
this type of music. The more samples from film or where ever the better for me, which is
one reason I like this CD so much, it's LADEN with them! The samples are really
interesting, provocative, nasty, and are written into the lyrics so that they coincide
with what the vocals respond with or continue on with in creating the entire picture of
each song. Very cool.
"Was an instant of my purity
worth a lifetime of your lies???" -- what a (Natural Born?) killer sample in Regress!
This track blends a hard guitar sound, keyboards, more screaming by Razor,
and electronic enhancements with a good dance beat, scary and eville...the best of
haunting dark electro-industrial. Another track I am very fond of is Fear Killer
(track 8, 13). The samples are so cool...this woman with a slight southern accent goes on
about: "Hands on mah tits...flesh...Sex...like a little bit 'o pain...flesh..."
while Razor whispers raspily on about "I'm fear killer, laughing at
your weakness", entwined with a darker off-key semi-brooding synthphonic harmony, a
clicking/conga-percussion beating like a heart in the mist of terror. This track is really
scary. Don't play it around your kids if they are under five years old, as it's sure to
conjure up a few nightmares...
Hard Intense power drumming coupled
with Ogre-like vocals during his peak years with Puppy, noise and injections of bizzare
wacked out gurglings like that of a crying dog are only part of the sounds on heard in Inconsistencies..."I
haven't got TIME for this Mickey Mouse Bullshit!". Wonderful track!
Overall this Pressure Device is
NOT for the weak in the audience. It is packed with a wide variety of hard
industrial-electronic aggro-creations, excellent sampling, incredibly good programming,
smashing drumming, provocative lyrics and harmony. I highly recommend buying this CD. It's
NOT to be missed. Simply put, Lateral Tension kicks ass.
