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Andy LaPlegua — mastermind behind the floor stomping beat machine, Combichrist recently emerged from an energetic tour with industrial metal veterans Rammstein to cast away his demons, and begin Making Monsters.
It’s been 7 years since Combichrists first L.P; in which he entered the underground scene with The Joy of Gunz, a myriad of distorted eletronica and power noise, with little to no vocals. A lot has changed since then — Andy’s decision to begin adding vocal tracks has gifted Combichrist’s sound with a little more substance — comparisons to Prodigy aside, Andy’s Combichrist took a step above their respective rivals with three impressive and powerful records which mixed rhythmic dance grooves, dark, wailing synth, raw, agressive vocals and lyrics which explored the underbelly of the city — sex, drugs, violence and war.
5 records and 7 E.Ps in, LaPlegua has successfully broadened and expanded CC’s sound since the slightly commericial and catchy predecessor, Today we are all Demons. The end result of his toils this time over is an hour long journey of darkness, horror, perversion and agression.
Opening track, Declamation, and moody, closing track Reclamation bookmark the ten songs in between with fuzzy, minimal beats and a synth scale, reminiscent of Mars by Gustav Holst — LaPlegua, for once, showing a stripped down, brooding side of himself that we’ve yet to hear. 4 minute interlude Forgotten offers the listener a mini-soundtrack to a future dystopia; a crawling, steady rhythm provides a backdrop to haunting synth screeches and glitches.
The first half of the record sees Andy mostly sticking to his guns; first single Never Surrender is a conglomerate of huge bass beats, crooned verse lines and a metal infused chorus, also shown in Follow the Trail of Blood, featuring Bleeding Through frontman Andy Schiepatti, whose roar is greatly complimented by the marching grooves, and cold metal clunk keyboards.
Slave to Machine takes a familiar song structure to create a potential favourite for the fans, Throat Full of Glass and the adrenalin fuelled Just Like Me are similar in approach — catchy, anthemic choruses designed for the Combichrist live show.
With Making Monsters though, it’s more interesting when LaPlegua experiments — the last four tracks being standout because of their alternate direction. Dancefloor filler, They is a 6 minute euro-pop extravaganza, mostly musically driven with LaPlegua’s distorted voice chanting a catchy chorus over manic keyboard work. Through These Eyes of Pain is the closest to a ballad that CC ever get — moody, and deeply personal, LaPlegua presents himself ‘broken and falling apart’, the proverbial man inside the monster.
Not as immediate as any of their previous releases, Making Monsters is a different beast — one in which Andy presents as more human, than machine. Whilst on the surface it doesnt seem like Andy isn’t reinventing the wheel as such, he’s building up a better momentum, keeping the wheel rolling and hopefully still full of more subtle surprises the next time around.