While birthed in the late 1980s, it was in the 1990s that the ‘Industrial Metal’ genre came to full fruition with the likes of Godflesh, Ministry, Pitch Shifter, Fear Factory, Front Line Assembly and even Nine Inch Nails carving out (or in some cases sampling) metal inspired riffing over a backbone of electronic malevolence and brutal machine driven percussion. In that tradition Black Magnet offer the haunted pummeling synthesis that is ‘Hallucination Scene’. From the initial battering of opener ‘Divination Equipment’ it’s clear Black Magnet play HEAVY guitar focused music with equal devotion to Industrial rhythms and electronic machine thunder. Throughout the punishing lurch a dark melodic sense throbs with uniform attention paid to the club floor as much as the mosh pit. All the while Black Magnet progenitor James Hammontree guides the hallucinatory torment and ecstasy with his acerbic delivery. The sonic magnitude of Industrial Metal and post-punk muscularity, heavy synth textures and rhythmic militance imbue ‘Hallucination Scene’ with a frenetic pulse acutely attuned to the head on collision of alternate dystopian timelines that is 2020.
