RAISON D'ÊTRE
THE EMPTY HOLLOW UNFOLDS
ALBUM COLD MEAT INDUSTRY RELEASE: MARCH 31, 2000 REVIEW: APRIL 28, 2000


This is the biggest musical surprise so far this year. The industrial ambient of Raison D'être's earlier outings have never really impressed me, but now, all of a sudden, they strike an unexpected nerve and come up with what feels like one of the most ambitious and credible records of the genre in the last few years.
Building tensions up slowly, "The Empty Hollow Unfolds" has a sense of held back dramatics that is absolutely overwhelming when listened to carefully. Instead of relying upon the average noise cascades or anonymous ambient atmospheres, Raison D'être paints intensely emotional pictures using low frequency bass, sudden attacks of scraping, screeching metal and tormented chanting, that is not that far from amazing drum'n'bass artist The Third Eye Foundation's wordless and sad sampled wailing. "The Empty Hollow Unfolds" depicts an almost ancient sadness, projecting images of cold, grey and barren landscapes of the sort one could imagine the Xenobites of the "Hellraiser" movies wander around in.
Unlike so many other "dark" artists it feels like Raison D'être actually have something to say, and a great way of saying it.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN