Review: The Walking Wounded – 'Bait'

THE WALKING WOUNDED

'Bait'

UNSOUND AMERICA

Two years on from their last outing on 'Valediction' the duo of Ron Lipke and Kyle Porter return with their dark electronic project The Walking Wounded on new album 'Bait'. The new album sees the duo's blend of slow and sensual, but always dance friendly formula intact yet significantly expanded upon with welcome live drum contributions from VOX MOD. The songs feel energized, and more confident in their intent which gives the songs a sharper focus and more bite as a result.

Songs such as 'Mr. Monochrome', 'Cathartic Rag', 'Bait', 'Merchant Of Venus', 'Epictetus', and 'After The Flood' give the album a dark and sinister backbone of glitchy industrial embellishments framing a fundamentally solid blend of hard ebm dance beats and dark electro. But everything feels a little more organic this time round, and the track list flows a lot smother giving the album a greater sense of being one complete statement.

Sonically the songs don't throw anything too unexpected at you, instead keeping firmly to their core formula. However with the heavy use of hardware synthesizers and live drumming, the songs sound bigger and more performance orientated feel to them. It would have been nice to hear a little more experimentation with their sound but this is still a very strong statement.

Production wise the album is a definite progression from their last outing. Yes, there is a retro flavour permeating the band's style, however the songs sound fresh and contemporary, and can hold their own with the current wave of industrial revivalist acts today.

'Bait' is perhaps The Walking Wounded's most confident sounding to date. The song writing has really hit its stride and the production gives it them the polish they deserve. The end result is a compelling listening experience with plenty of tracks that would feel at home on any club play list.  

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