The Electric Hellfire Club
ELECTRONOMICON

December 2001
Released: 2002, Cleopatra Records Inc.
Rating: 5.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Hot on the heels of last year's groundbreaking opus, WITNESS THE MILLENIUM, comes the fifth full-length offering from The Electric Hellfire Club; the aptly titled ELECTRONOMICON.



Recorded at Sweden's Abyss Studios with producer/engineer Tommy Tagtren (who has worked with such Black Metal legends as Marduk and dark Funeral, amongst others), the album further documents The Electric Hellfire Club's descent into the infernal depths of extreme music.After working with Tägtren on a collaborative side-project called Wolfen Society (featuring members of Acheron, Incantation, Dark Funeral and T.E.H.C.), he became the logical choice to produce the new album and The Electric Hellfire Club became the first American band to grace the infamous Abyss Studio with their demonic presence.



By incorporating disparate styles from opposite ends of the musical spectrum, ELECTRONOMICON merges the past with the future in an unsettling yet engaging sonic maelstrom. The band successfully fuses elements of techno, industrial and Black Metal to create an unique satanic hydrid. From the anthemic opener, "Wired in Blood" to the cyber-Thrash of closer, "Hymn to the Fallen", the Club leads us through a virtual hall of horrors populated by digital demons and computer-age blood cultists, all the while managing to keep forged tongue planted firmly in cheek. ELECTRONOMICON is T.E.H.C.'s most ambitious undertaking in their ten years of existence.



Featuring guest appearances by members of Hypocrisy, Dark Funeral and In Aeturnum, this album contains tremendous crossover potential for the fans of Black, Death and other metal genres while remaining firmly rooted in T.E.H.C.'s characteristic electro-evil sound.



In the late nineties T.E.H.C. established themselves as a dynamic and uncompromising live act, cutting their teeth on yours with such acts as Type O Negative, Coal Chamber, Fear Factory, Danzig, Powerman 5000, Gwar and Godflesh, just to name a few. The band will return to the road in support of this release in late Autumn, marking this as their first full-blown U.S. tour in three years. The anticipation of these shows are destined to draw from the farthest reaches of T.E.H.C.'s eclectic fan-base - uniting goths & rivetheads with heshers & headbangers in a sinister celebration of what can only be called the Devil's Music...



"The Devil's Music" indeed... Well, all that was actually written on the short but an effective biography of the band composed by the staff of Cleopatra Records Inc. respectively and nicely offered me kind of "an easy way out" for putting my own thoughts into words 'bout this hellishly AWESOME album 'coz I TOTALLY agree with the number of the beast times what's been written on it.



This album really took me by a huge surprise 'coz it has basically all the delicious elements I love in an extreme metal music. And probably even more. Anyway, it goes without spitting it out, but T.E.H.C.´s ELECTRONOMICON definitely belongs to my personal "TOP 10 ALBUMS" list out of all albums that I have received this year - there's just no question about it! Now I feel like I should hunt down the rest of their previous albums, too, in order to complete my personal "metal library" by their fine sonic blasphemy and digital Armageddon. Also, I suggest do a favor both for yourself and for the infamous T.E.H.C. members and direct your steps towards the nearest record store 15th of Jan. '02 and... (-eh?) spread this marvelous disease. Supremely outstanding stuff!!!



Ave Satanas! Ave Infernus! Ave Diabolis... - and Ave The Electric Hellfire Club!!!