(Metropolis Records)
For October, Metropolis dug deep and picked up the rights to this 2005 Sony/BMG import, a tour-de-goth that crams Smashing Pumpkins and Depeche Mode into a Chevette and does a wheelie past all the She Wants Revenges. After an inconsequential intro (why is any band even doing that anymore?) “In This Together” summons up a stage-whomping piece of anthem-techno that’s emo-esque in it’s breadth and depth and thankfully whine-free, and all would be fine and well-mannered if singer Stephan Groth didn’t all of a sudden transform into Neil Young for a couple of songs, melting into the pulsating array of ProTools mock-ups to create something shakily original. Once he’s sweated the Neil Young out of his system, Groth falls back to a more commercial – let’s face it, ABBA – songwriting style with “Cambodia,” then sets loose some robotic nu-gaze as a changeup in “Faceless Fear.”
