Nanochrist

It certainly makes a real change to have some full on Industrial Metal to listen to, and this is in your face stuff that's for sure. My first thoughts are actually that 'Erase the Sky' is very much along the lines of Fear Factory/Pitchshifter. Second thoughts are there's a little bit of Sepultura in there too!!!! So all good so far.



Looking back a bit on the third listen I'm picking up some nice Nine Inch Nails touches and even an element of KMFDM, (SO IT'S TICKING ALL THE RIGHT BOXES FOR ME) and this LP is in fact the 6th release from this bunch of Canadians recorded at their own studio in Toronto.



The blurb tells me that the whole Nanochrist concept was originally only intended as a studio project. What a fucking waste that would have been if it had been true, but they started to tour after the release of their fourth LP 'Mythelectronicon'.



I really can't emphasise enough just how powerful this album is and by the third track in I'm feeling like I'm pinned back against the wall listening to it, 'Disposable Genepool' is superb and it's then bettered by 'Acid Inhale', which for me is the stand-out track here. Then 'Trace' hits you and the NIN relevance is there for all to see. And did I mention 'Exquisite Corpse'? Grab some NIN, mix in some Killing Joke and finish it all with a bit of Fear Factory.... stunning!



The is probably the best album I've heard in the genre for a long time - go out and buy it now!
- Uber Rock

The Canadian project of Nanochrist is active since the late 90s. I can't remember to have heard of this band before although I've to recognize they're a particular experience in sound.

Nanochrist clearly finds their inspiration in the wide metal fields. Some of the tracks are pretty doom-like with "Two Minutes Hate" as main attention grabber. The guitar parts sound like a bulldozer on speed. The vocals are furious and enraged. The rhythmic sounds like a steam train losing control. Nanochrist gives me the impression of a hunted ‘beast'. It sounds fast and always forward, but still refined with some electro arrangements. "Disposable Genepool" is a very efficient song mixing guitars and electronics while it remains a dangerous and merciless track. "Acid Inhale" is another track in the genre. I here especially like the carrying power of the guitar play.

"Erase The Sky" never loses its power. The entire album is harsh, brute and metal-minded. Nanochrist is much harder than KMFDM, but less metal-like than Fear Factory. "Erase The Sky" is somewhere in between while still revealing a few darker trash/doom elements. The electronic touch brings an extra little element on top of it all. "Salt And Ashes" is another track appearing to be a cool ambassador for those Canadians.

I can't say that the album got me wild, but there's enough material on "Erase The Sky" to please metal addicts.
- Side-Line Music Magazine

"...makes Dimension Hatross era Voivod sound warm and fuzzy as a little kitten." - John Chedsey

As insane, twisted and bizarre as Mr. Bungle and Strapping Young Lad, Nanochrist employ significant amounts of programming overtop hyper-kinetic vocals and industrial guitar patterns. Definitely out there. Elements of Fear Factory are also present as the songs switch from crunchy to swirling at discordant intervals with a plethora of time signatures... Strangley tripping across the edge, Mythelectronicon is the fourth album from Nanochrist. An electromagnetic cyberspace soundtrack with touches of techno, suitable for those embarking on a trip to the Twilight Zone.
-Aaron Small, Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles - Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles

"Take pummeling guitar riffs, pounding drums, screaming vocals, and industrial-undertones and what do you get? Pure sonic melt down, the type of which has been perfected to a fine art by Nanochrist." - Scott G.

"Imagine if Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad got into a fight with Frank Zappa." - Ian

"If you like your industrial music to slap you in the face and open up your eardrums, pick up this cd immediately." - Sal

"An out of control adrenalin rush, with tons of ups & downs & twists & turns." - Burt Wolf

"To compare Nanochrist with any other bands I have heard or to put them into any specific genre would be ludicrous. Fans of electronic music will love this, as the programming is excellent. " - Michael Johnson

"This Canadian band has got to be one of the most strange and original bands I've ever heard... I dare someone to attempt to pigeonhole them as this or that. It can't be done. This will definitely open up new aspects of appreciation towards creative music." - Phil

"If you like your industrial music to slap you in the face and open up your eardrums, pick up this cd immediately." - Sal

Listening to Dead Fiction, Nanochrist's newest release, was confusing at first. The three opening songs sounded familiar. If the same thing happens to you, though, it's only because you have the same limited release three-song EP I do. The title track, ADSR, and Suffersystem 666--return polished to open the album.

Many efforts to make the purest metal sound can result in something that is all attack and quickly tiresome to the casual listener. Nobody in their right mind asks for Dust in the Wind when they pick up a metal album, of course, but there are means to heaviness across different tempos and instruments.

Nanochrist has no such problem, playing with electronic rhythms and different tempos across this album. You will certainly get the same guy yelling a lot and all the aggression you can expect from metal, but the time the band's (unofficial?) hiatus was definitely not spent twiddling thumbs.

The title track is an example of a fast-hard mix, while ADSR and its possible lyrical Hawkwind reference sits in the middle of the tempo range here. Even Purge starts rather slow and stays menacing, though it doesn't stay down there for long. By the time Racecar racecar rolls to its slow and ear grinding end, I can almost picture this album as one long cigarette that just burned out.

None of the lyrics leave much to be desired. It's all poetry, it works for the medium and certainly seems accessible. You may have to check the booklet to see what it actually says half the time, but this is metal after all. - Toronto Goth

Nanochrist was born in 1998 in Toronto, Canada as a five piece electro metal band. Taking influences from bands such as Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM and Fear Factory time has taken the band through four album releases before the release of this 'Dead Fiction' CD. According to the biography of this currently quartet, this album "moves away from the dissonance and longer, prog-ish compositions of their earlier albums, evolving into shorter, more concise and digestable songs, without losing any of the complexity, heaviness, and intensity that defines the Nanochrist sound."

The release opens with the title track - 'Dead Fiction'. It's a powerful midtempo track containing Machine Head likely vocals and vocal lines, powerful riffing and tight drumming. The industrial intermezzo is essentially wellplaced. 'ADSR' is a bashing track following walking that path. It consists of diverse drumming, wellplaced sampling and a powerful midtempo attitude accompanied by tight riffing and vocal works. 'Suffersystem 666' is a brutal mix of modern metal and cyber metal, coming with an accessable attitude. It includes diverse vocal lines, powerful though gentle sounding double bass drumming and wellfitting guitar work. The keylines all over the song give it a certain atmosphere. 'The Accidental Masochist' is again a bit more midtempo based, coming with what is probably the best riff of the release (hidden in the chorus) and subtile electro and industrial elements through the sampling and keylines. One of the most accessable tracks on the release. 'Chaos Mirror' is my personal favorite track on this release, providing a powerful though accessible and pretty catchy mix of cyber metal and wave, absorbing both old school and modern influences. It contains straight forward riffing and ditto drumming and diverse vocal lines matching excellently with the samples. 'Balance Unlimited' moves you from wave passages to outbursting industrial metal chorusses and parts. Overall the song has a modern and powerful attitude. 'Exoskeleton' is one of the more brutal songs, mixing cyber metal with electro / darkwave elements. The result is a bashing and trashing industrial metal track. 'Chronodermis' mixes darkwave and electro with old school gothic influences and sensitive vocal lines, to ultimately lead into outbursts on the chorusses. The song structure makes it sound slightly different than the rest of this album. 'Hypersleep' is again more brutal and uptempo, coming with touches of electro metal and cyberpunk. It mixes wicked drumming with tight straight to the point riffing, experimental sampling and wellfitting diverse vocal lines. 'Are You Kidding Me!' is a modern electro metal track coming with excellent sampling, powerful drumming and ditto riffing melted together excellently by the harsh vocal lines. The song also hides elements of darkwave and ambient. To me 'Purge' sounds like a balanced mix of Marilyn Manson (couplets) and Machine Head (choruses) - coming with modern sampling and keylines accompanied by diverse drumming and riffing. The surprisingly cool sounding guitar solo is also worth mentioning. 'Dust' is a bit more experimental - coming with elements from breakcore and cyber metal blended together well with the electro metal attitude that lays all over the entire album. One of the songs you immidiately start nodding your head on. The release ends with 'Racecar Racecar'. It's blessed with a bashing rhytm, strong riffing and diverse vocal lines and samples.

With 'Dead Fiction', Nanochrist delivers a very very very decent album that will apply to a lot of people reading this actual review on this webzine. Fans of the modern uptempo tunes of bands like MXD, MDM and newer MortIIs who have never found the missing link between those bands and more old school stuff like Nine Inch Nails, Swamp Terrorists and even Prong - don't look any further.

Vote: 91 / 100 - IndustrializedMetal.com

Listening to Dead Fiction, Nanochrist's newest release, was confusing at first. The three opening songs sounded familiar. If the same thing happens to you, though, it's only because you have the same limited release three-song EP I do. The title track, ADSR, and Suffersystem 666--return polished to open the album.

Many efforts to make the purest metal sound can result in something that is all attack and quickly tiresome to the casual listener. Nobody in their right mind asks for Dust in the Wind when they pick up a metal album, of course, but there are means to heaviness across different tempos and instruments.

Nanochrist has no such problem, playing with electronic rhythms and different tempos across this album. You will certainly get the same guy yelling a lot and all the aggression you can expect from metal, but the time the band's (unofficial?) hiatus was definitely not spent twiddling thumbs.

The title track is an example of a fast-hard mix, while ADSR and its possible lyrical Hawkwind reference sits in the middle of the tempo range here. Even Purge starts rather slow and stays menacing, though it doesn't stay down there for long. By the time Racecar racecar rolls to its slow and ear grinding end, I can almost picture this album as one long cigarette that just burned out.

None of the lyrics leave much to be desired. It's all poetry, it works for the medium and certainly seems accessible. You may have to check the booklet to see what it actually says half the time, but this is metal after all. - Toronto Goth

It's been a number of years since I last heard the robotic, cold mechanical stylings of Toronto's Nanochrist. In order to learn more about this band, I decided to buddy up with another Canadian band and ultimately move to Canada in order to better research just what makes Nanochrist tick. This massive journalistic undertaking required dodging Canadian customs officials, among other assorted misdeeds, all in the name of journalistic quality. Granted, I moved to British Columbia, rather than Ontario, because the scenery is far prettier and the weather is much nicer, particularly in the winter. Why Nanochrist stays in Toronto is something that I have not uncovered in my investigations. Maybe that's why their sound was so "cold". But with global warming, Dead Fiction finds the band warming up somewhat to a more "humid" level, which aptly describes summers in Toronto.

Nanochrist used to remind a bit of the bleakest and most technologically chilled aspects of bands such as Voivod mixed with the precision of Fear Factory. Maybe as the band members got older or their cyborg bodies were upgraded to newer, cuddly prototypes, they decided to inject more warmth into their music. Nowadays, Nanochrist is as fuzzy as bands like KMDFM or the long lost Skrew, playing a similar sort of hippie cybermetal music. Okay, so I'm fudging a little on the hippie part. But rest assured that Dead Fiction does not come across like a computer programmed to "Metal Up Your Nether Regions". The band is still ultra precise in their riffs but this collection of songs definitely finds the members loosening their belts and letting their diodes hang out a bit. It fortunately lacks the Drum Trigger Clinic aspect of any Fear Factory album after Demanufacture and features some good songwriting. The band sneaks in plenty of electronics as subtle texture and effects, but big fat chunks of guitar still dominate the proceedings. Those who hanker for industrial tinged metal will find much to enjoy here.

It also should be said that since Dead Fiction ends on a palindrome, it deserves a few more points in my super secret rating system. - ssmt-reviews.com

It's been a number of years since I last heard the robotic, cold mechanical stylings of Toronto's Nanochrist. In order to learn more about this band, I decided to buddy up with another Canadian band and ultimately move to Canada in order to better research just what makes Nanochrist tick. This massive journalistic undertaking required dodging Canadian customs officials, among other assorted misdeeds, all in the name of journalistic quality. Granted, I moved to British Columbia, rather than Ontario, because the scenery is far prettier and the weather is much nicer, particularly in the winter. Why Nanochrist stays in Toronto is something that I have not uncovered in my investigations. Maybe that's why their sound was so "cold". But with global warming, Dead Fiction finds the band warming up somewhat to a more "humid" level, which aptly describes summers in Toronto.

Nanochrist used to remind a bit of the bleakest and most technologically chilled aspects of bands such as Voivod mixed with the precision of Fear Factory. Maybe as the band members got older or their cyborg bodies were upgraded to newer, cuddly prototypes, they decided to inject more warmth into their music. Nowadays, Nanochrist is as fuzzy as bands like KMDFM or the long lost Skrew, playing a similar sort of hippie cybermetal music. Okay, so I'm fudging a little on the hippie part. But rest assured that Dead Fiction does not come across like a computer programmed to "Metal Up Your Nether Regions". The band is still ultra precise in their riffs but this collection of songs definitely finds the members loosening their belts and letting their diodes hang out a bit. It fortunately lacks the Drum Trigger Clinic aspect of any Fear Factory album after Demanufacture and features some good songwriting. The band sneaks in plenty of electronics as subtle texture and effects, but big fat chunks of guitar still dominate the proceedings. Those who hanker for industrial tinged metal will find much to enjoy here.

It also should be said that since Dead Fiction ends on a palindrome, it deserves a few more points in my super secret rating system. - ssmt-reviews.com