Panzer AG

Icon of Coil's Andy LaPlegua continues his lifelong genre-jumping expedition, this time planting his flag in an uncharted section of Reznorland where a scent of Bowie is carried on the breeze. In antithetical contrast to IOC's poppish EBM, the two albums released under the Combichrist banner were unholy noise truncheons unrepentantly graphic in their S&M fantasizing; in fact they just about raised the electro-gore bar out of reach. This second Panzer AG release, however, catches LaPlegua tabling lower bpm counts and spacy wretchedness lifted from sorely missed chartbusting such as NIN's "Closer" and Scary Monsters-era Thin White Duke. The plucked-rubber-band guitar of "Machinegun Gogo" is ripe for downloading by No Wavers whose necks have received a few workouts to Erase Errata, whereas "Among the New" is downright balladlike in a Major Tom fashion. The noise ideas are best represented in sign-off track "When I Am You," a sandstorming mujahideen menace.