NOCTURNE
Guide to Extinction
Triple X
Nocturne website
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If they weren’t so fuckin’ heavy, Texan digital demons Nocturne would be an awesome sex-pop-glitter band, in the much-missed vein of Transvision Vamp. Hell, they’ve already got the hot like fire singer with the loony-cartoony helium girl vox, the throbbing fuck n’ roll bass rumble, and the Anime superhero chock-chock drumbeats. All that’s missing is a Holly and The Italians cover, really.  But like I said, they’re heavy. They’ve got that leaden, down-tuned nu-metal ripsaw guitar thing clogging the arteries of “Guide to Extinction”, weighing the songs down so that only a frantic thrashing or a churning electro-doom can squeeze out of the edges.  Like a bunch of angry fat guys. Like Crowbar with a drum machine.

Although they sound like a full-blown mega-dustrial cyber circus ala Ministry or NIN, the Dallas-based Nocturne are actually a duo. Lacey Conner is the sugar-voiced kitten-with-claws up front, and Chris Telkes is the man-machine behind all the steam-powered biotech-tronica. Together, they make enough noize for half a Pigface jam session. But under the avalanche of dirge-y riffs, there’s some sexy, hook-heavy neo-goth tracks here that practically beg for inclusion on the next big-budget, big-screen “dark” comic book adaptation, or like, a video game starring a serial killing bunny rabbit, or something. It is kinda telling, however, that the best tracks on deck are the last two: the cover of Renegade Soundwave’s classic electro-sleaze thumper “Cocaine Sex”,  and the bubbling, burping guitar-less freakout closer “They’ll Never Find the Body”, which is the best late-period Skinny Puppy song I’ve heard since, well, late-period Skinny Puppy. Both tracks are left-turn deviations from all the turgid death-disco metal up front, and both of them show way more personality and energy than the glunk-glunk-glunk stuff that makes up the bulk of the record. I’m sure the rivetheads that eat up post-post industrial metal will find all this clang n’ bang to their liking, but me, I think I’ll wait for the remix album, or  maybe Lacey’s inevitable videopop solo record.

Then again, you might wanna buy it just for the pictures...

-Sleazegrinder