MDM - Modern Digital Militia |Spiralchords / Cop International, 2008|

1. Das Ist Krieg (American Reich), 2. Nothing, 3. Demander & Thief, 4. Collapse, 5. Silence & Pressure, 6. Theocracy, 7. Bitter End, 8. Smothered Hope, 9. Freedom?, 10. Silence & Pressure (Alex P
Remix), 11. Collapse (Daniel X Remix)

Often, we don't pay proper attention to the words. Often, the words lose their original meaning, ending up to be forgotten.

MDM, being well-conscious of the situation that the entire planet is going through, help us to remember the importance of our ethics and our words, bringing to our attention 15 words that form the strongholds of the Modern Digital Militia. Industrial Music (in all its forms) has always been careful concerning politics and social issues. After all, we aren't facing a dirty Pop band who wants to pressure the whole world to buy Prada shoes or the new Mercedes... Here we're facing a Militia, who has clear ideas about how to express their opinions in music.

It's not a coincidence that they choose the strong word "Militia". The splendour of the 80's is gone. The obscure 90's with their suicide hymns too. The year 2000 finally brought awareness and responsibility; the collective consciousness is waking up, after being zombiefied by the mass-media, we need to be cohesive like a militia to fight the corporate conspiracy.

Then there is the coming of a band like MDM or VentanA. Inspired by novels such as Orwell's 1984, or the independent documentary Zeitgeist to shake our consciousness, gladdening us with an excellent muse of industrial rock.

The album begins with the strong "Dast Ist Krieg (American Reich)", recalling some inspirations from KMFDM (fortunately from their most inspired period), and along with "Nothing" and "Silence & Pressure", these are the most beautiful tracks of the album in my opinion. However, the other songs are hardly less so. The accelerator is pressed at full speed, and also "Bitter End" and "Empire" with their catchy refrain to capture any attention.

To act as glue, and give us a breath of fresh air after the audio siege of the first tracks, and in the middle of the album there are two intermissions: "911" and "Empire." Track number 10 is nothing less than a cover of the famous "Smothered Hope" by Skinny Puppy. Sincerely i was a little bit scared by this cover, not so much because SP is one of my favorite bands, but because they are a Icon, and I have often heard a lot of covers leaving me anything but inspired. These were fears that were immediately swept away by a good version, clean, with a hard rock style, very close to the original song.

"Freedom?" is an instrumental outro that stimulates our thinking thanks to the impressive samples, and opens us to a question, explicit in its title, which reminds us of just how ephemeral our freedom is in this "Reality Show" created by our collective governments.

The last two bonus tracks are remixed versions of "Silence & Pressure" and "Collapse", manipulated by Alex P (former Digital Poodle) and Daniel X (MDM lead guitarist and programmer), which produce two excellent remixes, fortunately far from certain forced and extreme dancefloor versions.

This album is a very good production by the young and promising label "Spiralchords" (who has just put under contract, one of the most interesting bands of the moment: WGTF. In fact, it found the favor of fans and the public to obtain excellent results in the ranking of the 2008 Razorblade Dancefloor Podcast (Episode n°80), at the last edition of the WGT Festival, and even won a prize at the Niagara Music Awards.

"Moden Digital Militia" is a good and solid Industrial Rock album, which is surprising for the high quality in the sound-design and post-production, and it can easily become one of the most popular albums to listen to in your playlist, thanks to its freshness.

(Marco Gariboldi. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens)

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