Though new album Evolving is the first time we have come across US rockers Syztem 7, it is a proposition which immediately felt like an old friend back to eagerly stir things up. That is because the Seattle hailing outfit openly aligns familiar rock, industrial, and metal textures to their own just as bold imagination. It is the distinctiveness of the latter though which fuels and drives their rousing sound and makes their new album one highly enjoyable encounter.
The multi-flavouring adventure of their industrial rock sound has allowed Syztem 7 to share stages with and find support amongst the fans of bands as varied as Zakk Wylde, The Genitorturers, One-Eyed Doll, Thrill Kill Kult, Lords of Acid, King’s X, The Dreaming, and many others. It now provides a gripping incitement within Evolving which needed mere seconds to ignite attention and appetite as album opener No Regrets erupts to kick things off.
An initial lure of guitar makes for a potent coaxing, one swiftly ignited as the rolling rhythms of drummer Ed Rhoads add their ear grabbing bait to the great dirty grumble escaping Nathan Raynes’ bass. With keys keenly bursting into the already rousing mix, the track had us swiftly bouncing before relaxing into an infectious stroll alongside the enticing tones of vocalist Jason Ames. Rhythms continue to pick their spot with military precision, accelerating their strikes as the track’s anthemic chorus erupts upon the increasingly intense sonic hookery of guitarists Jaymz Kennedy and Shane Scot. Like a blend of Gravity Kills, Powerman 5000, and Rammstein, it is a gripping and highly manipulative start to the album and a persuasion only matched and twisted to greater temptation thereon in.
This Disguise is next up, the song laying down an electronic misting from which sonic tendrils wrap the imagination and a thick fusion of rock and metal spirals. As with the first, a certain familiarity in its voice and moves only entraps eager participation while fresh enterprise and individual imagination breeds the overall uniqueness which fuels the Syztem 7 sound. It swiftly had body and ears engaged passing them over to the just as easily persuasive Eternita Divina. Emerging as one of if not our favourite moment within Evolving, the song has a great touch of Breed 77 to its cosmopolitan web of melody and rhythmic animation, it all making the passage under our skin fluid and swift.
Proving just as captivating, Forgive and Forgets raises its anthemic hand upon the equally magnetic croon of Ames, the song with a Mudvayne meets Stabbing Westward air swiftly irresistible while The Worst sizzles on the senses straight after to match the virulence and captivation previously on offer. From guitars to rhythms, vocals to electronics, the track is a rapacious dance of varied rock enterprise designed to and succeeding in enticing full participation from its willing victims.
The following Skintag captures a 16 Volt/Celldweller hued temptation to its breath-taking enticement, the song another with a firm grip on best album moment as it nags eager and complete involvement in its arousing endeavours. Unsurprisingly it cast a web of tantalising flavours lined with varied and recognisable yet freshly individual threads in its energetic and inspiring weave and no shock, it too had us hook, line, and sinker.
Evolving closes out with firstly the physically intoxicating Godsend and finally the spiralling tempest of its title track. The first of the pair stalks the senses as it seduces ears with its melodic yet more carnal traits; its electronic elements inciting the bite of its rock and metal nurtured essences whilst equally breeding richer harmonic tempting in sound and vocals. Its successor aligns sonic turbulence and emotional intimacy with melodic intimation and ravening electronic contagion resulting in a final slice of inimitable Syztem 7 enterprise and audacity.
With every second, from its first lungful of sound to last, hitting the spot, Evolving easily rose as one of the year’s most arousing moments and Syztem 7 a band we can only anticipate much bigger attention rising up for.
Evolving is out now via Mighty Music @ https://targetshop.dk/product/syztem-7-evolving-cd?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/Syztem7band/
Pete RingMaster 12/12/2019
Copyright RingMasterReview: MyFreeCopyright
It opens up with Smoke, a track which instantly engulfs ears in rich melodies and tenacious rhythms. That grunge hue soon soaks its invitation, stoner spicing lining its lures as the vocals of Constantin entice with a warm yet darkly reflective edge. His guitar is an equally potent tempting, fiery flames searing the throb of bass, swing of beats, and the harmonic mist of keys. All together, the ingredients make for a captivating web of sound becoming more intriguing and beguiling minute by minute.
Break In Two reinforces the release’s impressive start, its resourceful entrance calmer yet just as instinctively invasive as its predecessor’s as a Gravity Kills meets Celldweller air grows and colludes with Ventenner’s openly distinct imagination. A gorgeous melodic hook caps off a mighty temptation, its prowess and potency matched by the sinister charm and emotive fire of next up Saligia. Almost devious in its weave of flirtatious melodies and sonic causticity, the song is pure addiction as industrial metal and electro punk merge for a hauntingly irritable raid on the senses.
Bring You Down opens things up, the song a strenuous wall of riffs and rhythms swiftly entwined in wiry sonic enterprise and vocal expression. Its intensity and power is a commanding and forceful wind but still allowing room for the melodic prowess and inventive weave of heavy rock and steely metal textures to make their persuasion. A Gravity Kills feel with a fierce fire to it graces the seriously engaging mix as vocals seduce and roar to match the journey of the music across the impressing start to Remedy. It is a potent persuasion continuing with Consequence. The scent of Nine Inch Nails hinted at in the first is a stronger flavouring to the second song, but equally there is an element of UK band MiXE1 and Deftones at play too as it reveals its own distinctive tapestry of searing sonic endeavour and electronic exploration.
The following Anymore with its vibrantly lighter breath and shadowy presence follows and if not one of the bolder tracks certainly whips up ears and appetite with its Dope meets Celldweller parade of electronic enterprise and vocal magnetism. It is not a song stretching the imagination or finding major originality but it does leave an energetic satisfaction and hunger behind which the outstanding King-Size Vandalism pounces on with virulent and ravenous prowess. Bursting in with robust rhythms and a joyfully warm melody, the song becomes a boisterous romp sizzling with the energetic tenacity of a Pendulum and grouchier lilt of a Combichrist, whilst vocally variety reaps a slight scent of Marilyn Mansion at times. The track quickly infects feet and emotions; it’s an electro rock anthem soon having the body bouncing as high as its own.
Machine Rox. The second track also unleashes an insatiable energy and charge to its pulsating persuasion, synths swirling feistily around the senses whilst guitars and beats cast a heavier and darker confrontation in the relentlessly infectious endeavour. With a glorious solo adding to the proposition, the song continues the outstanding start to the release and is immediately emulated by the heavy and catchy swing of Losers In Your Game. A Marilyn Manson-esque swagger fuels carnivorous riffs and eager rhythms whilst vocally Richard K prowls ears with a provocative narrative cast by his distinctive tones, the mix another slab of inescapable virulence.
