Mass Murder Agenda
Bring The Violence

I guess that a mass murder agenda is some sort of calendar in which people can remind themselves about their planned mass murders. Like 10 a.m: walk the dog. 10.45: meet up Betty at the mall. 13.35: mass murder at 10 Downing Street. 3 p.m: pick up the kids from school.

With their debut 'Bring The Violence', Swedish Mass Murder Agenda releases an album that covers the entire spectra of industrial metal. We hear electronics, programing, simple riffs, samplings, dismembered melodies, screamo vocals, voice distorter, battering drums and an overall mood that feels very similar to the one you get in cheap zombie films and video games. I think it's an album that both works well and bad at the same time, where good ideas and interesting elements share area with less successful ones.

I think the music is pretty cunning and clever when it comes to ideas and ingenuity and my thoughts unintentional wanders off to the first of the Resident Evil films where I think they've sampled both sound effects and soundtrack heavily - or at least it sounds like they've done so. 'Bring The Violence' has eleven tracks and takes 42 1/2 minutes to play from start to finish, 42 1/2 minutes that all delivers an apparent industrial feel and claustrophobic mood where you can almost smell the death surrounding it. I think it's an album that should be played from cover to cover rather than splintered since it feels very coherent and connected to some sort of thread despite it's eleven tracks are quite different in both character and quality. I even feel that it sometimes is more related to the sequel Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse rather than the first film, which in more intelligible language means it gets more straight to the point action rather than moody thriller frights where the samplings turn less complicated, guitars play simpler riffs and the melodies more linear. Without ever leaving it's thread, I still experience this album as somewhat schizophrenic and I really think that fans of any of the similar bands mentioned will like this album pretty much. Those not so fond of these bands, however, will probably have a hard time embracing Mass Murder Agenda as well.

I like the tracks that have the most electronics in them, and some songs really go bananas with that, but it's pretty difficult to feel anything at all for an album that seems to seek chaos without leaving an evident need for structure. The first half of the album have some decent songs, but it's the second half where this band get their act together most on this album. The second half is more electronic, have more samplings and even gets a better flow in the music but they still maintain that chaotic mood that dominates the first half. Another thing they do better on the second half is to lower the pace more often and this is good because it helps the album become deeper and more thoughtful somehow, not just seeking attention and making offensive songs as I experience their first half to endeavour and we find tracks like the less appealing Sucker and pretty pathetic Gagball right there on the first half - two songs that might as well be scripts for pornography rather than music.

Overall though, I think this is a decent album. The biggest issue seems to be the level of relevance the mass murders have found to write in their diary because much of it just seems to be scribbling and doodle to fill out the pages. However, the agenda also shows a band with plenty of good ideas that makes exciting music. If they're able to refine this material and clear out the trash I think it could become really interesting, but 'Bring The Violence' is just not mature enough for that yet. I think it's an album that will appeal most existing fans of industrial metal but if you're not one of those, it's probably not as interesting because it's just a bit too much industrial metal to be anything else. At least that's my experience of this album, it goes beyond that border of when it gets too much a few times too many to really please me. Still, it was an interesting experience and I look forward to hear more!

HHHHHHH