CoC : Estrogenocide - Estrogenocide : Review

Estrogenocide - _Estrogenocide_
(Independent, 2002)
by: Quentin Kalis (6.5 out of 10)

Any band that claims to perform "synthpopgrindcore", and that their two main influences are Depeche Mode and Napalm Death, succeeds in piquing my interest -- and I therefore listened to this CD immediately after I received it. After several listens I think I can safely say that there is no band like them; while they adhere to grindcore's (brief) song structures, the guitars are abrogated in favour of '80s synthpop blips and bleeps. A drum machine is used -- though this does get monotonous --, while the simulated guitar leads are just as bad as the one in Ultraviolence's cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". Considering the complete absence of guitars, the grindcore growl was wisely rejected in favour of menacing and slightly distorted clean vocals. Lyrically, the traditional grindcore mix of humour and gore is utilised, generating a surreal atmosphere whereby violent lyrics are sung against a background of 'poppy' music, incapable of sounding dark or evil. An interesting experiment, whereby a naturally upbeat synthetic pop sound is subverted and taken to its admittedly aggressive limits. This may very well receive a fair amount of time in your stereo, but despite the inventiveness shown on this release nothing can be done about synthpop's inherent cheese factor. This results in the songs becoming annoying pretty quickly, which means _Estrogenocide_ will most likely be forgotten in three months time.

(article published 11/4/2003)