ASSEMBLAGE 23
DEFIANCE
ALBUM ACCESSION, METROPOLOS RELEASE: OCTOBER 28, 2002 REVIEW: NOVEMBER 11, 2002

It has been a struggle trying to come up with anything new to say about the current state of mixture of EBM and synthpop the community so aggressively promotes as future pop. "Defiance" is luckily not all about this, by now rather tiring, club friendly, melodic technopop. It has intermissions, slow intermissions that are vital on an album like this. What maintains my interest and makes me want hear the album again is the unmistakable, yet enigma-like quality Tom Shear possesses. See, there is still a large amount of super strong song writing on the album, behind the clubby facade. Assemblage 23 will please old and new fans alike with "Defiance", but I think renewal in some form would probably be healthy for further releases.

NIKLAS FORSBERG