A thud… metallic screams and electronic clicks, drowned in reverb. Something is coming. You know its there, but not when it will strike. The tone deepens. Another thud… then another… another… rhythm – aggressive military rhythm, angry whispers… here it comes…

BAM!

”no future
no life
no sunshine
no rights”

Here it is; the new Front Line Assembly album – and this one is going to grab you by the genitals and drag you along whether you want it or not. Improvised Electronic Device, like the classic FLA albums, is not something you can put in your speakers and expect to ignore. It’s solid and angry – the butt of a gun against your hip, urging you to look into the violent maelstrom of existence and see. This is music for grim, necessary violence.

The title plays on Improvised Explosive Device – otherwise known as a roadside bomb. Yeah, that’s right – that should give you an idea of the payload in this one.

Jeremy Inkel is still around, now backed by Left Spine Down mate Jared Slingerland. They join commandant Bill Leeb and marshal Chris Peterson in this all-out assault on comfortable devolution. Rhys Fulber has apparently stepped back to focus on Conjure One. No doubt, he will return on future albums. We know he can’t stay away.

”sterilise all contact points”

The style of the album is a splice of Millennium brutality and distortion with [FLA]vour of the Weak analogue experimentation and Epitaph beats. The result is the hammering, sweeping and grinding behemoth that is Improvised Electronic Device – the hardest FLA album since the mid-nineties. I kid you not.

With this heavy emphasis on foreground beats and crisp synthesizer sounds (in contrast to the meticulously balanced soundscapes of Fulber’s mixing) the album is not just hard as hell but also notably danceable – particularly in tracks like I.E.D. and Shifting Through the Lens. I don’t know if this is a conscious move, but it will certainly help in getting exposition on the EBM/industrial club scene.

”burn… burn all the icons”

Signs of the members’ backgrounds are apparent throughout. Laws of Deception and Pressure Wave bear evidence of Peterson’s savage industrial band Decree. Also, much of the guitar work unsurprisingly sounds similar to that of Left Spine Down. Always, however, the influences rise within the greater context of what is unmistakably Front Line Assembly aesthetics.

Two slower tracks mark the end of the album, juxtaposing what I can only describe as the novelty track. This is the only bit about this release that falters. The final trio are all great tunes, but they’re in the wrong place. Afterlife – a kind of electronic ballad – should have come earlier in the tracklist; Stupidity – featuring Al Jourgensen and brazenly straddling the line between the FLA and Ministry – is great, wild fun, but it doesn’t mesh with anything else on the album; finally, Downfall – a wonderful, epic, atmospheric FLA track – is technically in the right place, but sounds strange after the hectic onslaught of Stupidity. The effect is that I keep wanting to start the playlist over to get back to those glorious first two thirds.

”this lifeless city dissolves in rust
no life-forms left – what happened to us?”

Conclusions, well… if you haven’t guessed the fact that I love this fucking album yet, you need better drugs.

If you’re in the anti-guitar camp, you’ll have figured out by now: you’re fucked – you’ll hate it. While its a far cry from Fear Factory, Die Krupps or KMFDM, it’s the most clearly metal influenced FLA album since Millennium.

If you do like the rougher sampled-guitar influence, and if you’re prepared to try new mutations of the FLA sound, this one will knock you flat. Personally, I think it’s one of the best FLA releases, period. It may have its flaws, but on the whole, it’s one seriously potent piece of aural explosive.

”kampfbereit”