There were some delightfully sublime songs on last Birthday Massacre album ‘Pins And Needles’ so this EP giving the chance to revisit some of them in remix format, along with three new songs was a welcome surprise. The Canadian band seem to have really got popular over the last few years and if you have not discovered them yet, now is a good time to check them out. So many groups get bandied in the female fronted Goth metal category but hardly any of them truly cut the mark and deserve such a tag. The Birthday Massacre do, by name, by their striking cover art which again here is beautifully designed and of course by their music. Along with Dutch band Asrai they are the real deal in a sea of imitations where symphonic and Gothic are all too easily confused.
You get your bucks worth here with over half an hour of music which starts with the new songs. ‘Forever’ has that retro keyboard sound which is so synonymous with this band and the treacle etched vocals of singer Chibi, which are never far away. This is a bit of a slow one and a ballad in essence although it gets up the tempo with anthem like melody bolstering it. Much more bombastic is ‘Burn Away’ with those Tubeway Army sounding synths giving this a brooding electro pop backbone. Combine it with a really strong vocal performance and you have a sing-along hit and a half that is bound to be a great live number to boot. Sounding straight out of the 80s we have ‘Left Behind’ which has the spirit of the perfect pop by a group like Aha along with the new romantic clamour of a band like Yazoo. It’s just like stepping back in time and comfortably reflective with it.
After this we are onto the mixes and they are pretty versatile. Dave "Rave" Ogilvie should need no introduction due to involvement with Skinny Puppy and along with Canadian musician Kevvy Mental they put a hard slow beat to the fragile and gorgeous ‘Pale’ Elsewhere Combichrist are on hand to mix up ‘Shallow Grave’ which is given a heady pulsing treatment around those catchy lyrics that really get to you. Just in case they don’t first time around Assemblage 23 also give the track a mix and Tim Skold tackles the title track ‘Pins And Needles,’ raving and industrialising it up.
This has made me want to go back and listen to the other album as well as track down the bands past discography so as far as I’m concerned it has more than done its work and I cannot see any fan of the band not seeing this is a pretty essential purchase.
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Pete Woods
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