It’s been an odd year for Metropolis releases, with nearly all of them fitting a pattern of better music being found on their second halves. Eerily enough, this extends to their reissue catalog as well, as seen in Eulogy for The Sick Child, 1999’s EBM clinic from the former DNA. Admittedly, there’s not a lot that hardfloor and darkwave fans will dislike about the first part of the album – least of all the widely exalted S&M-stomper “Scorpio,” resplendent in an early Skinny Puppy groove that meanders with a gripping and spooky synth riff – but by quanta, from track 7 on, the proceedings are more relaxed, original and experimental, beginning with “The Settling,” a noise venture that retrofits somber Hammond whole notes with a jumbled tabla-like subroutine. David Albrecht’s voice goes black-metal snarl in the manner of Hocico to honor the hardfloor numbers but downshifts to a swirling Ratzinger-esque half-whisper for the goth-droid trances, the most subtle of which is “Overcast,” a wobbling wave-form floor-filler that tees up the booping instrumental raver “Out: Obsolete.” Order from Amazon.com
