List | F | Front Line Assembly | 'Millennium' CD 1994

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	Vigilante	6:28
2.	Millennium	6:09
3.	Liquid Separation	5:05
4.	Search And Destroy	6:30
5.	Surface Patterns	5:35
6.	Victim Of A Criminal	6:31
7.	Division Of Mind	5:47
8.	This Faith	6:11
9.	Plasma Springs	6:20
10.	Sex Offender	8:12
	Total	62:48

Comments:

FLA got a lot of criticism fot this album, and for one reason only: it had lots of dist guitars. Old fans accused them of "selling out", whereas they themselves claimed they wanted to try "something new". Either way, it's a darn good album with very well crafted and intense songs, more harsh than the nearly purely electronic Tactical Neural Implant (which had its share of dist guitar samples, but not too many and rather buried in the mix). Much of the aggressive feel and intensity stems from the very well-balanced mix of harsh electronics and thrashing guitars, something the old EBM/industrial band Die Krupps also did around this time, but a lot less interesting. It's not like this is the first time FLA have used dist guitars, but they've never been used so fundamentally.

As usual, FLA steals much of the music from other sources. In this case, they supposedly stole guitar riffs from Pantera and Metallica, but as usual they steal very well indeed. All the samples (guitars, film samples, voices, choirs, drumloops etc.) blend very well.

One of the most criticised songs is the rap-based 'Victim Of A Criminal', which is built around a drumloop lifted off a James Brown song (with the characteristical "Uh!":s) and with an aggressive rap and dist guitars on top. I like it a lot, but then again I'm a sucker for hip hop drumloops and aggressive rap. Add the FLA to it (with the occasional speed-metal type bridge) and you've got a near-perfect rap song. 'Industrial rap'? FLA meets Public Enemy? I love it. (Well, it's not actually Public Enemy, but it sounds a bit like it...)

Another other-than-the-usual-FLA-style track is 'Surface Patterns', which has rather slow and "groovy" dist guitars setting the state of the track. It stands out as well as 'Victim Of A Criminal'. Compared to these two, 'Liquid Separation' is more a standard harsh FLA song, with (seemingly) every possible FX put on the vocals; it's like out of this world entirely.

The regular more-melodic-than-the-rest (like Threshold or Lifeline) track on this album is 'This Faith'. It starts pretty weak, but builds to a rising tension and a really pleasing "second chorus". This track is also the least guitar heavy.

Apart from the last (instrumental) track, the rest are more standard FLA-type EBM, but with the added guitars of course. Some even seem to be written mainly for guitars, although I suspect they were built around some nifty sampled guitar riffs.

All in all, a very good album indeed. Not what I'd expect from FLA when I heard they'd "turned guitars", but it really grows a lot with time. An FLA classic, if you will.

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