Phoenix

Ravenous assembled to create something completely new and different to existing styles of music, and while most listeners may question whether that admittedly high goal has actually been achieved here, it's nevertheless clear that this band will provide a relatively painless introduction to neo-gothic industrial dance music for those who find bands like Funker Vogt (with whom Ravenous shares several members) too intense. The vocals are dark and Depeche Mode-ish, the lyrical themes apocalyptic in a left-wing sort of way, the beats a fairly standard set of four-on-the-floor industrial house rhythms. But where Funker Vogt tends to be snarly and texturally oppressive, Ravenous takes a more melodic approach: on Religion, singer Tom Fockenbrock fairly croons his skeptical (surprise!) lyrics over smoothly bubbling synth percussion, while "What Would It Be Like?" explores feelings of anxiety over the world's fate while heavily distorted keyboards lay down a strangely serene layer of sound underneath. "Pleasant" is probably not the operative term here (not with couplets like "See the monsters, see all the beasts/They hunt you down in the streets" floating around in the mix), but this is music that does occasionally achieve a sort of tortured beauty.