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Released
1996

Label

Finland Site

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

Visit
Terminal Choice
Contact

Cyberwar (at) sci.fi
PO Box 623
33101 Tampere
Finland

Visit

U.S.A. Site
PO Box 2154
Seattle Washington
98101-2154

Last Edit/Update
26 August, 1999

Khaosgott

Track Listing

1. Prologue
2. Fleischmacht
3. The Forest
4. Khaosgott
5. The Age Of Suffering
6. Deathwish
7. Queen Of Darkness
8. The Witchhunter

            Out of Berlin, Terminal Choice -- centered around the enigmatic Christian Pohl -- is the flagship of Finland's Cyberware Productions label, and a rising star on the International underground electro scene. With their second album Khaosgott, this quintet has created a masterful work of dark synthetic inferno. The lyrics of the album revolve around the concept of evil in man, and the music is fittingly apocalyptic, incorporating elements of medieval music, symphonic synth themes, demonic vocals, and true German goth.
          Two instrumental tracks open Khaosgott. The first, "Prologue," is a brief piece pitting foreboding background atmospheres against the tinkling of a music box, while an old German voice recites a statement to the effect that man's heart has no knowledge of goodness, only of evil. From there, the album descends into the furnace of hell with "Fleischmacht." Singeing, scorching synths shoot in and out between the stomping piston beats, and as the chaos intensifies, a frail  melodic theme is introduced, like a last flickering light of hope.
          "The Forest" again juxtaposes innocence and evil. Musically, a crisp piano theme stands in stark contrast to the bleaker surfaces of sound that underscore the song, as well as the thunderous percussion that intermittently fire up like some doomsday engine. The vocals, too, are performed at first in a boyish voice, but transforms into a demonic growl by the end.
          Medieval percussions that sound as if imported from Bergman's The Seventh Seal herald the coming of "Khaosgott." Beautiful dark synth melodics, and the impression of choral voices lift the piece up, with Christian delivering another forceful vocal performance amidst twisted recitations in German.
          The highpoint of the CD follows. "The Age Of Suffering not only features a tour-de-force lyrical and vocal performance, with the title of the song yelled out repeatedly as the chorus of the song. The words are carried with sweeping grandeur by interweaving piano, synth and string themes, and the thrust forward by a throbbing machine pulse. Interludes of sounds from a battlefield and despairing German voice samples further add to the sadly beautiful airs of this excellent song.
          While also a highly melodic and danceable track, with Christian singing in a powerful, treated voice, "Deathwish" is robbed somewhat of its power by the needless and overbearing use of some tired and tried samples from the movie Hellraiser. Aside from that, the song maintains the atmosphere of the other songs, and is by all means a good cut.
          Initially slower and denser harmonics dominate "Queen Of Darkness," with the number of the beast repeated again and again. However, a stomping beat kicks in, and the song turns into another dark, coursing piece, again with a strong set of lyrics, in which Christian sacrifices everything and surrenders to darkness.
          The final official track on Khaosgott breaks somewhat with the style and tone of the music up to this point. A harpsichord theme opens "The Witchhunter," but is soon banished by metal edge guitar riffs, and a punishing punk beat. The piece ends rather abruptly, giving way to an extended silence, before the 'hidden' track 66 begins. Apparently this concealed bonus song is a cover version of a song by Shock Therapy. The theme of the song is whistled over a chorus of several male voices, and the refrain: "Hate is just a four-letter word," is likewise sung in unison by a number of the band's members. To complete the apocalyptic theme of the CD, this final piece runs to exactly 7:06 minutes, although the actual song ends a couple of minutes before that.
          It may be difficult to take the doom and gloom of Terminal Choice absolutely serious. However, the lyrics are well written, and the musical language of this band is decidedly their own. More importantly, the power and mood that these Berliners conjure up is truly impressive, and largely unparalleled in today's music.