---

Ministry are archetypal legends of industrial rock, Al Jougensen, responsible for not only Ministry but other genre defining moments of genius such as Revolting Cocks and 1000 Homo DJs, fronts the band in black frock coat, top hat & shades while swinging back and forth on his goat's skull crucifix mic stand - occasionally leaning over the chain link fence that separates the band from the crowd on this tour. Joining him front of stage are moody guitar god cliche Sin Quirin (who also played in RevCo) and Prong's very own Tommy Victor - strutting and running about in a kilt for the night - and "new boy" Tony Campos from Static X taking over bass duties after Paul Raven's untimely death last year. This is Ministry's final tour and the set features songs from each of Ministry's albums rather than concentrating on the hits, the second encore features cover versions ending the night rather disappointingly on Wonderful World. The general feeling being that a "Greatest...

---

Staple food of industrial fans and angry young teens everywhere KMFDM have been doing their thing since 1984, with an ever evolving line-up and increasingly bizarre choice of album titles. Their newest offering is no exception. Entitled Tohuvabohu, the line-up for this new album remains largely the same as their more recent studio releases and many fans feel that it's been a successful mix. Others however will (rather more vocally) decry the band's modern sound, and believe KMFDM have been in a slow decline for years. Personally I always find KMFDM to very hit and miss; half an album tends to be superb and other tends to be very weak filler. Except for Nihil, which was awesome start to finish. However when you've been around as long as this band has perhaps it's unfair to expect every single track to be a tour de force. Tohuvabohu is a word from the Old Testament roughly meaning 'wild and chaotic', which is the broad theme KMFDM have gone for with this release. An...

Latest studio release from one of the big boys of electropop

---

Assemblage 23 is probably my favourite musical act ever, so of course I checked out their latest album Meta as soon as (legally!) possible, but it's taken me a while to pen a review. There's a good reason for this – so far Tom Shear (the man behind the band so to speak) hasn't released a bad album. Not one. I therefore spent quite a while with Meta just trying to find fault, since many of this years futurepop and EBM releases have fallen short of the mark for me (VNV Nation, I'm looking at you) and I figured Assemblage 23 must be out of luck sooner or later. It's true that most fans, myself included, might say they peaked with 2001's album Failure, however the last album Storm showed that there's life in the act yet. So does Meta continue the good works? From the opening track Decades (V2) this is unmistakably an Assemblage 23 album – the catchy and melodic electropop sound is instantly recognisable. This track is brilliant and sets up the benchmark for what follows,...

---

Nice Inch Nails are really good. I’m fairly convinced of this fact, and I clung to it throughout the night. Like a raft, it bore me from island to island of great songs, scattered haphazardly in a sea of shitty tracks from With Teeth. To be fair, this is the first time that I’d heard anything off the new album, so I hadn’t really had a chance to get to know any of these dreadful, dreadful songs. They are rubbish, though, when performed live. I can’t imagine that being on record helps them to suck any less. Of course, no one was there to hear the band play stuff off of With Teeth. Contradict me all you want—you’re lying. About halfway through the set Ninchy Nails realised this and got on with their good songs. And how were they? Well, they were good. Mostly good. Occasionally things got kicked up into fucking excellent, but never for very long. Somewhere along the way NIN seem to have forgotten how to rock, which is terribly unfortunate. We got a low-calorie, vegan...

Seventh outing for Doom Metal Mentalists

---

Seventh studio album by "Gothic Doom Metal" band Type O Negative.

Goth pomp, Dutch style

---

Dutch goths Within Temptation can apparently fill European stadiums at the drop of a trenchcoat but I think they would struggle to fill a pay toilet in the trend obsessed uk of 2007. With a musical base rooted half way between bombastic goth operatics and traditional rock guitar work outs, Heart Of Everything can make for an odd listening experience, especially with the overwrought diva vocals of Sharon Del Adel plastered on top. Overly camp and cheesy in places, as on the shitty silly balladry of All I Need yet head noddingly rocking in others, such as the Free styled riff work out of the title cut, the album is a mix of good and ugly, with a slight emphasis on ugly. In the oddest musical moment yet of 2007, Keith Caputo turns up on What Have You Done to trade vocals with Del Adel on a surprisingly strong chunky nugget of goth rock. A mixed bag but of enough quality for those interested in gothic bands with bellowing sirens on lead vocals.

remix heavy ep

---

No new material on offer here on this six track ep, instead you get the original mix of Every Day Is Exactly The Same—a slow burning track of Depeche Mode anguish—plus five other mixes. The remixes are what fans will shell out their cash for and whilst this collection is no Fixed, the remixers, including DFA and Richard X, actually break down Nine Inch Nails’ insular clatter into something accessible such as on the disco overhaul of The Hand That Feeds. Essentially this is only of interest to die hard Nine Inch Nails fans and not the general record-buying populace. Available from April the 17th through Interscope. www.nin.com

Money, Success, Fame, Glamour?

---

Not to be confused with the Burger King Kids' Club.

Single

---

Mediocre metal-tinged goth-rock yawnfest.

boring goth rock

---

Godhead are a just a little bit lame. They look like Marilyn Manson’s backing band of any given era and sound like some of his album tracks, so not much going for them then. Best remembered for a woeful take on Eleanor Rigby, Evolver is their second major label album and their most guitar driven to date. Where synth-goth once laid the foundations for their songs, now it is sub-metal riffs that have probably been handed down from Static-X, whose singer guests on this. For the most part the tracks are interchangeable, scuzzy riff over lame beats gives way to a weak melodic refrain, and then there’s the slower paced Bauhaus-like content such as the moody Fade Away. The band’s biggest problem is their lack of hooks, no catchy riffs or melodies that make you hit repeat. For a band that is seemingly aiming for airplay on US radio surely that is a pretty stupid mistake. Duuuh. Very safe and very dull, Evolver does not even stand up to third rate acts like Stabbing Westward never...