Review: Death Of Self - 'Embracing The Things We Hate About Ourselves'

DEATH OF SELF

'Embracing The Things We Hate About Ourselves'
BUGS CRAWLING OUT OF PEOPLE

Chicago's Death Of Self is another one of those one-man industrial-noise bands making some genuinely interesting work that seems to just be hovering on the periphery of the scene. Yes, this is a slow and somewhat depressing slant on the genre, but there are some great melodies and dance-friendly beats sprinkled liberally throughout 'Embracing The Things We Hate About Ourselves' that will no doubt find a ready and willing audience.

The opening song 'No Control' is a brilliant introduction that makes good use of a slow and sinister pace underpinned by a memorable melody and simple rhythm that won't send people running for the hills. However things quickly get more interesting on songs like 'Solitude', 'The Machine', 'Meaningless' and 'More Interactions With People' with their increasingly more dissonant, tortured and layered sounds that still manage to retain a simple and approachable rhythmic structure to keep a toe in the potential club waters. The album also makes good use of the heavily distorted vocals as a further rhythmic device rather than part of the melody, which is often left to the various samples. However this does have the occasional draw back, such as on 'Broken Glass' where the vocal line is simply too repetitive in conjunction with the beat.

As with a lot of industrial-noise releases the mix can become quickly over-saturated with distortion on all the various elements of the tracks which then quickly swamps everything ultimately dulling its listening potential. But this is not a common occurrence as for the most part the album is well-balanced, if a little repetitive in places.

For a first full-length 'Embracing The Things We Hate About Ourselves' is meticulous in its construction and should be a good stepping stone for Death Of Self that has both live and club potential. Some more variations and changes in pace would expand nicely on what is already an uncomfortable but compelling listening experience.

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