Review: Siva Six - 'Superstiton'

SIVA SIX 
'Superstition' 
ALFA MATRIX 

Before I even listened to this EP, I knew that it would have to be something pretty special. 'The Twin Moons' is one of my favourite albums brought out by an industrial artist in the last few years and, to me, made Siva Six an important player in the industrial scene. Clever, heavy, and classy, 'Twin Moons' is a tough act to follow.

The EP opens with 'Superstition'. No punches are pulled as the bass piles in, with the kick breaking in after a short amount of time; this is a track designed for club play. As always with Siva Six, I can’t get enough of the vocals in this track. Dynamic and strong, the vocals provide the focus of the song, supported by the powerful kick and bass combination. I can certainly see this track getting club play. The track cuts itself a little short, leaving as quickly as it began, but it certainly works.

'Nemesis' is the second track. Here, we see the other side of Siva Six; dark and atmospheric electro. Far from the four-to-the-floor club oriented nature of 'Superstition', 'Nemesis' focuses on glitchy drums and sweeping pads, weaving a well crafted ambience driven on by Z’s vocals once again.

'I Am A Groupie' surprised me with it’s introduction; it’s not often you get a song that opens with the words "I fuck with Combichrist", spoken over an acoustic guitar. This is not industrial. This isn’t even electronic music. And you know what? This works. This works really, really well. More and more, we are seeing industrial acts writing songs in other genres, and this can only be healthy for the scene. I was taken completely by surprise. I smirked at the lyrics, the name dropping, the humour. I genuinely enjoyed the guitar work. This is well produced music, for the sake of music, and I love it.

'She Is A Groupie' is the sister of the previous track on the EP. Changing the angle of the previous song adds a whole new depth, and I feel that Z’s vocals certainly fit better. He’s so damn expressive. It’s a clever little experiment, and it really worked for me; it’s probably my favourite track on the EP.

The remixes on this EP are a real mixed bag; Siva Six have purposefully selected artists from multiple genres, to take their music to different audiences. The three that stood out for me were the remixes by Incubite, Christian Cambas, and Must Pain.

Jesus, Incubite are on a role! 'Collision Course', their most recent EP, was excellent, and this remix leaves little to be desired. A fairly commercial sound (for industrial) that I hope will get a fair amount of club-play, with this huge filthy bass. As industrial remixes go, this was easily the best on the EP.

The Christian Cambas remix has a very house-y feel to it that is far and away from the original track. It’s a complete shift in direction, and certainly intended for a different audience to Siva Six’s usual. I enjoyed it because of this; not that I have anything against Siva Six’s sound, but because I’m impressed that Siva Six had the balls to put something that wasn’t really that industrial on their record.

Following the vein of ‘balls’, the Must Pain remix completely blew me away. Black metal. Black metal on an industrial record. As someone who came into this scene from black metal, I gelled really well with this track. It’s heavy, orchestral, and works perfectly with Siva Six. I am really rather impressed!

Superstition was never going to live up to Twin Moons. That wasn’t the point, and they haven’t even tried. Instead, Siva Six have used this EP as an experiment; A little humour, some interesting genres, some new ideas. They’re testing the waters, and that, for an EP, is perfectly fine.

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