My Love Kills – Imitatio Dei (Album – ScentAir Records)
Genre/Influences: EBM, Body-Pop.
Format: Digital, Double CD.
Background/Info: The Swedish-French duo Fredrik Sigeback (Erotic Elk) – ‘Vicomte Vampyre Arkames’ (Ad Inferna) are back on track unleashing their second opus, which is a double disc featuring a total amount of twenty songs (including a hidden song).
Content: “Imitatio Dei” moves on where “Glitch” stopped. The duo again mixes explicit EBM elements together with some Pop refinement. The album takes off with rather accessible songs mixing both genres, but quite progressively the tracklist evolves towards good-old EBM reminding me of early Skinny Puppy polished with Electro-Pop arrangements. I also noticed a few passages with guitar sounds on top. The vocals are mainly sung in English, but there are also French lyrical passages. The spooky way of singing creates a perfect match with the music.
The second disc is quite similar to the main disc, but I noticed a few softer cuts and even a somewhat Cinematographic part. Three songs are totally new while the others are taken from other releases.
+ + + : “Glitch” was already a good surprise, but this album is more than a confirmation. My Love Kills have assimilated retro-EBM together with Pop arrangements. The sound is still dark, but never rough. There are great choruses you can easily keep in mind while great sound atmospheres support the work with cold elegance. I already said a word about the production of the vocals, which accentuates the ghost-like approach of the global sound production. I also like this album because we get 20 songs; there’s no remix and no real B-side cuts.
– – – : The Pop element might hurt some narrow-minded EBM freaks, but I think there are no real minus points about this work. One thing is for sure, the best songs can be found on the main disc.
Conclusion: My Love Kills has improved most aspects of the production, unleashing a sophisticated and efficient piece of EBM!
Best songs: “The New Babylon”, “Silent Scream”, “La Voisin”, “Unterwelt”, “No Remorse”, “Catatonie”.
Rate: (8½).
Artist: www.facebook.com/Mylovekills
Label: www.scent-air.com / www.facebook.com/ScentairRecords
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