Review: Fatal Casualties – 'Paria'

FATAL CASUALTIES 

'Paria' 

SEJA RECORDS 

There is a trend these days for bands that were kicking about in the '80s and early '90s and missed out on their chance to be written into the annals of music history to reunite and have another crack at it. This has yielded some great results with the likes of The March Violets and Defeat being two that spring immediately to mind. Now joining the ranks of the recently revived is Stockholm's Fatal Casualties. Originally active between 1986 and 1991, the duo of Stefan Ljungdahl and Ivan Hirvonen have reunited to unleash the début EP that never was.

The band's first official outing, 'Paria', mixes old school attitude and modern production as the duo unleash six cuts of industrial-tinged ebm that recalls the likes of The Klinik (actually a lot of Dirk Ivans' projects), Cabaret Voltaire and Skinny Puppy. It's dark yet danceable, with songs like 'Aim', 'Drifting' and 'Glas' sounding like genre classics. While 'En Nervkostym', 'Slippery' and 'Toys' turn up the experimentalism for what will undoubtedly be some great live tracks.

The songs have a very old school vibe and are built around distortion and noise punctuated by dance beats and melodic synths. Yet it doesn’t sound outmoded. Ljungdahl and Hirvonen have put the work in and made the songs sound as good as possible to compete in the modern scene.

It's a damn shame it's taken Fatal Casualties as long as this to release an EP, but it is a fine début to make. Lets just hope it doesn’t take as long for them to come back with a more substantial full-length studio effort.

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