Society Burning [reviews]
Updated by Draconina on 11/09/2010 09:56
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)
Entropy.Lingua.Reloaded |2009, Prescient Thought| (free download release)

1. Tactiq (Swineflesh Mix) - Rebuilt by Apparatus, 2. Waster (Sleepy Mix) - Rebuilt by Twitch, 3. Immobilize Me (Drowning Cradle Mix) - Rebuilt by Drown, 4. Waster (DOH Mix) - Rebuilt by Hate Dept, 5. Awaken (DOH Mix) - Rebuilt by Hate Dept, 6. Waster (Stomp Mix) - Rebuilt by Idiot Stare, 7. Fuel Line (DOH Mix) - Rebuilt by Hate Dept, 8. Waster (Brass Balls Mix) - Rebuilt by Alien Faktor, 9. Under the Steeple (Punishing Flesh Mix '92), 10. Fuel Line (Original Mix), 11. Awaken (Radio Edit), 12. Waster (Twitch's Idiot Staring at my Brass Balls Remix)


Society Burning have planned a remaster of one of their albums for a long time and so they finally chose to refresh Entropy.Lingua originally released in 1996. Computer technologies has been evolving with a speed of light since 1996 and because all of Society Burning members are involved into using them daily for their jobs (Daveoramma: 3D animations http://www.youtube.com/user/Daveoramma, Digital Pen & Ink ; Twitch: Information Technology; Boom chr Paige: Graphic Design, Programming), so they found it both necessary and interesting to renew and enrich the sound of their album which includes remixes of the songs from 1997 "Tactiq" CD.

The set of songs was remastered and after giving them a long listening I can recommend such versions like "Tactiq (Swineflesh Mix)", all of 3 remixes by Hate Dept., "Waster (Brass Balls Mix)" with more danceable rhythm by Alien Faktor, and very oldschool and thanks to that, interesting "Under the Steeple (Punishing Flesh Mix '92)". A structure and a melody of the remix sounds typical for the songs grabbed from an albums collection labeled as 'coldwave'. "Fuel Line (Original Mix)" is also a very essential remix on the album. Twitch added his own arrangements to the songs "Waster (Sleepy Mix) and "Waster (Twitch's Idiot Staring at my Brass Balls Remix)", a bit squeezed by drum'n'bass and techno solutions.

Due to copyrights the Adam Ant's "Stand And Deliver '97" cover was removed from a free download release.

Original songs still remain in my memory so their remixes don't turn me on that much, but I do appreciate the band's movement towards a long awaited reunion and I'm looking forward to the brand new songs coming on the newest album sometime soon.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)
Tactiq |Re-constriction Records, 1997|

Awaken, Dead Man , Less Than Zero , Waster, Tactiq, Immobilize Me , Human Waste , Michelle Ascends From Hell, Rot, Merciful Release, Stand And Deliver ('97)


There were (the band doesn't exist anymore*) two men standing behind Society Burning success: Dave Mansfield and Boom. The music shows anger, raw power plus looped samples, mixed up beats and screaming vocals. Waster and Human Wasted - the two most tubular songs can born something really angry in a listener's mind ;) Also noisy Rot, cold Stand And Deliver (it's Adam Ant's song cover version kept a bit in the style of older FLA or Skinny Puppy music, it's hidden under the number of 68 on the Tactiq record). The title song is soaked with anger and hatred. Awaken it's a good song to remix it in a few other ways. I liked Less Then Zero because it contains typical for goa and trance music vibes plus sampled guitar riffs and synths. Michelle Ascends From Hell spoils the whole image of the record a bit, because it doesn't fit here but you can omit it listening to the album.

*The band had reunited a few years after this review was written.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)
Entropy Lingua |Re-constriction Records, 1996|

Tactiq (Swineflesh remix by LSD), Immobilize Me (Drowning Cradle remix by Drown), Awaken (Hate Dept. remix), Waster (Hate Dept. remix), Fuel Line (Hate Dept. remix), Waster (Stomp mix by Idiot Stare), Waster (Brass Balls mix by Alien Facktor), Awaken (Radio edit)


There are remixes of songs from Tactiq album. I liked the LSD version of Tactiq and Hate Dept. remixing Awaken song. ( Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)


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