List | F | Front Line Assembly | 'Hard Wired' LCD 1995

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	Neologic Spasm	5:50
2.	Paralyzed	5:30
3.	Re-Birth	5:19
4.	Circuitry	5:55
5.	Mortal Instrumental	5:41
6.	Modus Operandi	5:47
7.	Transparent Species	7:15
8.	Barcode	6:11
9.	Condemned	5:51
10.	Infra Red Combat	8:48
	Total	62:07

Comments:

This album is a lot less guitar-driven than Millennium, though the guitars can still be found here and there. Instead, they seem to have focused on really warped and twisted super-electronic noises, creating their own or sampling them off the likes of Aphex Twin. I'd say they've gotten their hands on a Nord Lead, but I could be mistaken. Apart from the electronics, another focus is the really cold and spooky chords and choirs. Other than that new direction in sound, the actual songs are quite like Millennium, at least more like that than like Tactical Neural Implant (which probably makes sense somehow). Harsh, cold, twisted, warped, distorted, destroyed, broken and reassembled (no pun intended).

The most exciting track to my ears is 'Infra Red Combat', which is also the most melodic track and reminds me of This Faith or the likes, only harsher. The intro is quite long and reminds me of old dark and evil Delerium, probably the excellent Faith, but with those Aphex Twin type sounds thrown in. It just feels sooo good when the intro finally kicks into the actual song, and the evil vocals come creeping up on you. And the song grows towards a sweeping and powerful ending, like the best of FLA I've ever heard. I just love it.

Speaking of old Delerium, 'Mortal' seems a bit like a mix of that and Sex Offender; a slow instrumental track with lots of voice samples describing all sorts of unpleasant stuff. It's quite a powerful track. It grows well into 'Modus Operandi', another slow and powerful track, but with warped hissing vocals and a spooky killer bassline. Sharp dist guitar riffs violently interrupt this dark sense occasionally, and the vocals grow from hissing to screaming. It's simply great. You can get nightmares from less.

And if you're wondering what separates this limited version of the album from the regular version, the answer is nothing, except that it comes with a useless cardboard box and the second Circuitry single. So there.

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