seven

not trusting my patriotic feelings, I have always been cautious about cyclotimia. their previous full-length on stateart, "new death order", was a decent work, but at the time it appeared to be too bleak and formulaic for my tastes - the usual creepy caustic ambience with tons of samples, attacking the same easy targets.

"wasteland" is something entirely different - it has everything from quieter ambience with mechanized drones and noises, to monumental cold soundsweeps with towering percussion drops. somehow medieval western european militancy mixes remarkably well with slavic folk roots, drowned in heavily processed mechanized noises of modern technophile wasteland. all of this mixes together remarkably well - gritty power electronics textures with a backdrop of clean strings, cinematic landscapes filled with processed industrial sounds. the music is not just a well-manipulated sound collage, but has a substance and a structure, flowing from aggressive mechanical coldness to almost symphonic melodic movements.

altogether this is the kind of ambience i have always been after - strong rhythmic presence, heaviness and density, deeply rooted in the darker moods; mixing organic, tribal presence with industrial feel. this album presents a multitude of different genres blending together in one impressively solid work.