CHRYSALIDE: Don’t Be Scared, It’s About Life CD Audiotrauma / Artoffact Records

CHRYSALIDE: Don’t Be Scared, It’s About Life  CD Audiotrauma / Artoffact Records

French act Chrysalide have been making waves for some time now in Industrial circles.  I witnessed them live at WGT in Leipzig a couple of years back and they provided one of the more impressive performances on the bill, blowing away some of the lesser acts playing to larger audiences.

A fair array of styles are mashed together to form the beast that is ‘DBSIAL’, from traditional EBM, to the Digital Hardcore of ATR, fused together with simplistic, yet riotous abandon.   Outsiders will point their finger at the immediate comparisons with Skinny Puppy, but where SP have become a washed out parody of their former selves, Chrysalide sound fresh and new with Oghr-ism’s spat out with rejuvenated gusto.  There’s no doubt as to where immediate influences lay once the ‘Last Rites’ barrage of “I Do Not Divert Eyes’ and ‘Fucking Doubt’ kick in, teetering on the edge of plagiarism; then again, who cares when its so well done?

Unsurprisingly, a remix of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ makes an appearance at the end of this lengthy affair; I expected it to be a direct cover as it came across live, but I can tell it isn’t.  Either way, it’s entertaining enough, if not dangerously teetering on the edges of copyright control.

‘Don’t Be Scared, It’s About Life’, is a fairly exciting release overall, carrying the mantle that many older generations have left abandoned.  The only negatives are on some small areas of production scattered throughout the album and some tightening of the belt buckles as to what tracks should make the album, not simply the unnecessary inclusion of all that was written.

8.5/10