seven

after being tricked into buying "rage" by numerous favorable reviews, i approached this album with quite a lot of skepticism.

i was pleasantly surprised by "so what" - seems like the band started working in the right direction. at least half of the tracks have "cleaned-up" sound in comparison with "rage" - the music is less chaotic and cluttered, it has cleaner and more aggressive sound. the compositions are more rhythmic and the sound becomes harsher when the vocals is taken away. vocals is the biggest problem I have with the band's sound - repetitive and unimpressive as it is, when it mixes with the music that is quite monotonous by itself, the result is unbearable. however, straight rhythmic tracks with no vocals are very impressive and serve as a playground for experimentations with various soundstructures.

the disk really picks up when "i know you know" kicks in with its crushing pulsating dirty sound; the percussion madness continues with "7th sect" which is one of the strongest compositions on the cd with its very dense and heavy sound that by the end of the track pummels the listener into the ground with repetitive violent noise outbursts; "soul" is a clean twisted bone-chilling piece of structured ambience that gives you a short break before immersing into the madness of next percussion masterpiece - "picklenash". breakbeat-filled, chaotic and incredibly dense "discorrode" is the last track on the disk that truly stands out for its force and complexity.

second disk of this 2-cd set surprises the listener with several tracks that reveal the ambient side of the band. however the strong percussion side of the band exposes itself even there, and they fail to create ambient, atmospheric feeling, rather showing "lighter" side of synapscape. and again, the absence of vocals greatly benefits those tracks.

overall, "so what" is the disk that cannot be missed by any fan of ant-zen material (at least its rhythm'n'noise side); bonus video of "new order" deserves mentioning as well. don't let the abundance of relatively weak tracks cloud your vision and discourage you - pick the best ones to listen to.