Internal Combustion |Audiocomm Intl. Publishing, 2010|

1. Internal Combustion no. 01, 2. Nausea ad Nauseum, 3. Honestly, I'm Lying (Lie), 4. Double Plus Minus, 5. Detritus, 6. Inflatable Buddha, 7. Internal Combustion no. 02, 8. D1SinT3gRat10n, 9. The Monster Under Your Bed, 10. Splinter Cellphone, 11. Living in the Shadow of Myself, 12. Very Small Openings in the Skin, 13. Exile, 14. Vapor Lock, 15. Internal Combustion no. 03, 16. Nausea ad Nauseum (Produkt remix), 17. The Monster Under Your Bed (Awakened mix by UCNX)

I believe most of you have come across the Society Burning name throughout the years. Since the beginning (1991) the band has consisted of three musicians: Daveoramma, Twitch and Boom chr Paige, who live in three different regions of the United States and cooperate together on a distance. On a side note, it's important to mention Society Burning had a chance to release two of their six official albums for an iconic cold wave music label called Re-Constriction in the 1990's.

Society Burning has been heavily recognized in both cold wave and industrial rock scenes, but it doesn't look like they really wanted to expand the fame of their name on every possible electronic music platform; ranging from electro to digital hardcore. The new album doesn't aim to merely gather numbers or try reaching out to every casual listener. It is directed to more or less the same faithful fan base who have been enjoying listening to such music on daily basis due its consistent integrity.

It took two years to record Internal Combustion and its content could be divided into three parts. However, the segments weren't set up in any specific order.

First of all, there are songs with moments of aggressive guitar riffs, which appear sporadically, being displaced by dynamic beats and vocals (Detritus, D1SinT3gRat10n, Living in the Shadow of Myself).

Secondly, there are songs which keep the typical Society Burning cold wave sound, with a lot of samples and repetitive parts that are orchestrated to create particular and remarkable compositions (Nausea ad Nauseum, Internal Combustion no. 02, Splinter Cellphone, Exile, Internal Combustion no. 03).

Thirdly, there are experimental arrangements reminiscent of styles like click'n'cuts, breakcore and ambient. On the other hand, cyberpunk can be found on the album as well (Internal Combustion no. 01, Double Plus Minus, Very Small Openings in the Skin, Vapor Lock).

Finally, there are gems like Honestly, I'm Lying (Lie) (Which reminds me of the vibe of The Downward Spiral by NIN), Inflatable Buddha and The Monster Under Your Bed which could be placed in all of the above categories.

The result certainly comes from the musicians interests and talent being stretched wide; Boom prefers modern electronics, classic rock and industrial, Daveoramma likes guitar driven music such as Pantera, Killing Joke, Prong and White Zombie, but also the 80's sound of Wang Chung and Muse. Twitch's interests goes from classical music icons like Beethoven and Bach all the way through the alternative metal sound of Helmet, Megadeath and Soundgarden that morphs into darkwave music styles representative of Bauhaus and even Love & Rockets.

There are additional remixes included at the end of the tracklist brought by rather young bands - Produkt and UCNX. The first remix (Nausea ad Nauseum by Produkt) is kept in the mood of modern electronica. The second remix, The Monster Under Your Bed (Awakened mix) sounds very competitive to the original track.

The album was mastered in Steven Seibold's studio, who's better known for his 90's industrial rock fame from the band Hate Dept. Seibold cooperated with Society Burning back then as well as putting his production touch on many other releases, including Pigface, Vampire Rodents, Information Society, Kevorkian Death Cycle, The Damage Manual and Project .44 too (see here).

This album presents itself as deeply thought out, with a clean and high quality sound suitable for the dancefloor or even just rocking out at home. However, it seems like it could be dangerous to listen to while driving or working because such dynamic music can make one's mind distracted, or turn them aggressively intemperate altogether.
Songs like Exile, Nausea ad Nauseum, Honestly, I'm Lying (Lie) as well as Internal Combustion no. 02 can quickly fall deep into memory, so they make the Internal Combustion album a very serious candidate for one of the best industrial rock-electronic releases of 2010.

I have no choice but to strongly recommend this album; as well as my favourite work by Society Burning, an album called Tactiq. You can get the new album on the bands official website. I am rating Internal Combustion very high because the band did their homework ;)

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, 11/05/2010. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)