Review by Liar Society

I remember a time in the mid-nineties when the underground was a-buzz with a new tangent of industrial music that welded urban decay to roughshod heavy metal guitars. Nine Inch Nails's Broken EP set a new standard for anger management and Ministry's Psalm 69 was suceeding and not sucking eggs. Unfortunately, this musical strain quickly got co-opted by thrash bands who bought samplers and drum machines to cash in on "the next big thing". Along the way the baby got thrown out with the bathwater and the underground turned toward more dance floor-friendly bleeps and bloops in the wake of all the imitators.

Enter Cyanotic. Back are the punishing guitars, the incendiary samples, the scrapyard beats, the distorted vocals giving voice to righteous social consciousness. Transhuman is a welcome return to a style that still has a lot to offer. The machine now has a soul and it is aggro all the way. For a debut album, Transhuman packs a furious punch; one can only hope that this is the first offering in a long career of bringing the pain.

Ah, it's like Wax Trax never went away.