List | S | Sister Machine Gun | 'The Torture Technique' CD 1994

Track:	Name:	Time:
1.	Salvation	6:11
2.	Sacrifice	3:46
3.	Negative	4:25
4.	Krackhead	4:29
5.	Wired	3:02
6.	Cocaine Jesus	5:31
7.	Brother Bomb	3:27
8.	Nothing	4:35
9.	Torture Technique	3:27
10.	Iron Sun	5:46
11.	Heaven	2:24
	Total	50:15

Comments:

Good thing I bought this album about the same time as its successor; if I hadn't, I might have given up on this band. Not that this is a bad album, but it's a lot more alterna-rock than Sins Of The Flesh, and I'd say there are plenty more bands of that genre than I can bother to be interested in.

Most songs are more guitar-based, but there's the occasional song that could fit on the previous album. The drums seem mostly synthetic/sampled, which is nice. There are still some machines here and there, but mostly in the background. The machine noises does seem a bit, uh, inspired by (again) Nine Inch Nails, but more like The Downward Spiral than on the previous album. The actual songs are more unlike NIN though, more guitarey and funky.

Vocally, it seems Chris has three modes: "sing mode" for the slower songs, where he sings rather well and fairly low (pitch); "shout mode" for the faster songs, which is some sort of slightly growling shout/singing, quite melodic and not entirely unpleasant; "rap mode" which is rather-like-rap-but-not-quite, half spoken, half sung. Songs like 'Krackhead' seems to use all three of these three modes, yet both the "sing mode" and "shout mode" rather sparingly. Well, maybe there's a "talk mode" as well (or perhaps a slower form of "rap mode"; a sub-mode?) like on 'Cocaine Jesus'. Lyrically, there's less of the word stretching that annoyed me a bit on Sins Of The Flesh, but I guess that's just a natural progression.

A quick word on the other songs: 'Salvation' is a grungy/funky tune with "sing mode" and "shout mode" vocals, whereas the slightly faster 'Sacrifice' is more "rap mode" and "shout mode". 'Negative' is a bit groovier, 'Wired' is kind of funky. 'Brother Bomb' is in "rap/shout" modes, with drumloops and a slap bass. 'Nothing' is rather good, funky "shouting" with a rocky feel. 'Torture Technique' is quite fast and bouncy, mostly in "rap mode" with occasional whispers. 'Iron Sun' is a little like some stuff on Sins Of The Flesh, but with more quirky noises. 'Heaven' seems mostly like toying with noises, disted drumloops and more noises. It's followed by about a minute of silence, which then jumps into a rather unexpected short little jazzy song. A fun little tune in sharp contrast to everything else on the album.

Overall, it's not a bad album. I'm more fond of Sins Of The Flesh, perhaps because that was more synthetic. This album is perhaps a little too much in the rock territory, but still with some good songs. I think I like the funky ones the most.

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