The Battle For Last Place |Slave Unit, 2007|

Expect Nothing, Face 2, Etched, In Time, In Your Defense, Hope, Go, My Spine, Mold, Just Being There

This is the newest album by Slave Unit, released after 11 (!!) years since the debut, self-titled CD. I paid attention to the band a few years ago feeling a great power in their music with raw aggression expressed by blending simple, edgy guitar riffs, low tuned bass lines and attacking vocals so I was expecting to hear something that kind once again. Hot tempered tracks appear on The Battle For Last Place CD in at least 9 for 10 songs.

Slave Unit is a band based in Oakland, CA featuring Mike Welch (vocals, guitar, bass, programming, sampling, drums and percussion), Shawn Brice (BloodWIRE): (Live) Guitar and Percussion and Aki Sasaki (Black Snake Moan): (Live) Bass and Percussion.

The thing I do find interesting about their music is mixing 3 dynamical, aggressive styles of music - industrial, punk and metal. This is what I'd love to hear as a new wave of industrial music taking a turn these days. The idea of returns is simple - refresh the genre by adding some new tunes to get a new quality based on well known music genres. There was industrial rock, industrial metal, now it's time for industrial punk. I haven't heard many bands that kind. Yet. Slave Unit may be considered as the best example and a turning point for bands which used to perform guitar driven music but would like to gain new fans listening to still heavy and rebelled vibes.

If you listen to such tracks like Face #2, In Time (used also for The Murderous Mix compilation including tracks by SMP, Penal Colony, 64K or Tankt) or Hope you'll get an idea of what I mean by industrial punk name. Of course it's not about labeling only but about pure heavy music and this kind of thing usually comes true during live shows. Don't miss Slave Unit shows when you have a chance to read any informations about their venues.

There are only a few samples or looped backgrounds in the songs, because the whole thing is about guitars, natural voices and drums. And I'm glad of it. We've been getting too much of electronic music for the couple of last years and personally I'm fed up. It's high time for aggressive guitar driven music now!! :)

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)