MENTALLO & THE FIXER RETURN TO GRIMPEN WARD ALBUM METROPOLIS RELEASE: MAY, 2001 REVIEW: JUNE 1, 2001

This American project ceased to be not long ago, only to be reborn a few weeks ago. This is the last release before Dwayne Gassing's brother Gary decided to quit, and it is a compilation with remixed versions of the duo's old songs.
I haven't heard all of the original music, so I can't judge all the remixes. But judging by the stuff I have heard from them befor, the mixes don't seem to be radically different.
The style on this CD is hard-hitting EBM with heavy drumming, fat synth-basses and growling vocals. The vocals sound pretty bad most of the time, with lots of distortion. The tracks aren't very melodic, relying mostly on sheer force to drive their point home. The production is OK, nothing special, with the ole' Wumpscut trick of drowning the drums in distortion and using some crappy sounding bass-sound. Overall, the sound is rather clumsy, but I don't know if that's the right word. The melodies never catches you and the rhythms seldom makes you move.
The tracks are very similar to each other, even though it spans over a ten year career. It's hard to point out a single track, except the few ones that only consists of dark strings and tingling keyboards, like "Stellar Cascade". Some efforts to make a different sound can be traced in "Grim Reality" and "Narcotic Calling": mid tempo tracks with cleaner drums and nicer synthwork. The latter, instrumental one, is the best. The first uses way too much distortion on the voice.
This album really is nothing for me, even though it gets better at the end. If you like their previous work, I guess it could be a nice addition to your collection, otherwise there are lots of better bands out there today.

JOHAN CARLSSON