Terminus Victor

Terminus Victor (Champaign, Ill)
Rock/Industrial
Sounds like: Nine Inch Nails, Filter
www.myspace.com/terminusvictor

These guys are one of the better kept secrets in the Midwest, and I guess the easiest way to describe them is plainly a wall of sound. These guys hit you like a tidal wave and when a song ends, you are left wanting more. They might catch you off guard with just how good they are. - Chicagoathome.com - Brian Campbell

Rock duos aren’t all that uncommon. Mates of State and The Rosebuds have shown that it only takes two musicians to create loveable pop songs. Death From Above 1979 proved that you only need a bass player and a drummer to tear shit up. With Under Surveillance Terminus Victor show that you don’t even need a drummer to tear shit up.

Terminus Victor sound like a combination of These Arms Are Snakes’ raw intensity, Someday I’s songwriting and Pelican’s expansive sonic lurch. Even though Terminus Victor uses programming en lieu of real drums, they sound raw, real, and rocking. The album’s dominant sound is that of a mid-90’s arena rocker, but minimalist bridges, sampled ambient noise, and the masterful use of programmed drums create a far more intelligent offering.

Scott Kimble’s bass line over pre-programmed drums in the opening of “Rookie Maneuver” could only be described as punishing. Its weight, intensity and utter simplicity give the song a forceful underbelly. When guitarist Don King’s finally comes in, he avoids attempting to take center stage by instead using his guitar as an accenting device to ramp up the overall intensity of the moment. This becomes a familiar interplay that Kimble and King revisit throughout the record.

Another frequent sound not normally associated with bands with such girth is the minimalist instrumental bridges that show up throughout the record. On “Artic Living” it isn’t King’s intent to impress listeners with soloing abilities, but to add an aspect of focused melody to a raw song.

Although it has the potential to be viewed as a novelty, Terminus Victor’s lack of drummer seems more like an artistic statement given their overall diversity. This isn’t lame brained simplistic bro-metal; this is intricate, well written hard rock that packs a punch. With Under Surveillance, Terminus Victor created an offering that makes them deserving of a place at the upper echelon of heavy rock music.
- Review by Mark Jourdian

Musicianship – 10 out of 10
When I first listened to Under Surveillance, I wasn’t exactly sure what to think. I get in a hurry when I listen, and subsequently, I tend to gloss over finer points on the first listen. The second listen gave me a lot more insight into the machine that is Terminus Victor (aka Scott Kimble). He is responsible for the bass tracks, drum programming and vocals. In other words, he is the heart of the machine! Overdriven bass tracks make the sound fatter and fuller, providing bottom end thickness and mid-range power that drives the sound. Though I’m ordinarily not a fan of programmed drum loops, I find that they fit the style of this music incredibly well, and make the songs a lot more interesting!

Not to be forgotten is the vocal work of Scott Kimble. He has a very cool voice that fits the sound of the band very well. Layered vocals are interesting, gritty, raw and emotive. He is a great musician, with soul and heart that is readily and willingly displayed in each song.

Kimble’s rhythm work is supported by the guitar work of Don King. He provides a lot of cool rhythm and melody lines, adding finishing touches to rough tracks that would be okay on their own, but are incredible with his additions! Below, I compare Terminus Victor to Nine Inch Nails, and I think that you’ll agree the comparison is valid. Like NIN, Terminus Victor makes technologically advanced music that Kicks Ass! I enjoyed it immensely!

Songwriting – 9.5 out of 10

I may be in trouble for doing so, but I found myself comparing the work of Terminus Victor to the work of another great songwriter/composer, Trent Reznor! Like Reznor, Scott Kimble uses instrumental strength to create edgy and powerful support for intelligent, introspective lyrics that are performed with raw energy. In each track, you hear the power and emotion that is infused. I love that fact, and found that this CD ended up in my player a lot during the time that I was listening! The intricate guitar work, combined with the excellent vocal melodies, make this an album that I think Indie music fans need to hear!

Sound Quality/Professionalism – 9.5 out of 10

Given the fact that there aren’t that many instruments used in the making of this CD, Scott Kimble, Matt Talbot, Don King and the entire production/engineering crew do an excellent job of making a big, fat sound come to life! I love the thick, grungy bottom end and the gritty vocal sound. Still, even with the emphasis on bass, I found that I needed to add a lot of boost to the lower frequencies on my player. A higher overall volume level and a heavier sound on the bottom end would have made this project perfect! Thank God for equalizers!

Packaging – 10 out of 10

I like the artwork on this CD. It is very fitting, given the title of the CD, and has a feel that is eerily similar to those that are found in the Stanley Kubrick masterpiece A Clockwork Orange. Lyrics for all songs are included, and full credit is given to all involved. One of the best packaging jobs that I’ve encountered!

Favorite Tracks
The Mechanical Eye
Chemical Relief
Rookie Maneuver
Arctic Living
Useless Abduction
UFO Time
A Scream in the Park

Overall Rating – 9.5 out of 10

I probably tend to exaggerate the descriptions of bands that I like in my reviews. I can’t help it; I enjoy what I enjoy, and when I find something I like, I want to share it with everyone I know or can communicate with! Terminus Victor certainly falls into this category, and the more that I hear the band’s music, the more I feel like sharing it with people I know. The songs are intelligent, and the music is powerfull, but not overpowering. Hard Rock fans, as well as more mainstream fans will find more in common than they ever though possible, all thanks to this record!

Under Surveillance is an excellent record, and I insist that you give it a listen! Normally, I’m not that insistent, but this is just not any old CD! Thanks to Innocent Words Records, we have the excellent work of Scott Kimble and Don King, aka Terminus Victor. These guys have done a great job, and I hope that you’ll reward their efforts by investigating the sounds! One listen, and I swear that you’ll be hooked!
- Mark Lush

Terminus Victor • Under Surveillance • Innocent Words • For those of you, who think that walls of fuzz can only sound good with shoe gazer music, think again. The vibes that the duo of Scott Kimble and Don King (no, not the evil boxing manager) emits can be abrasive and intricate all at once. So whether, it's DEFCON 1 or orange alert time, be sure to have your duct tape ready because Under Surveillance, is apt for the post-apolyptic times. (CP)
- CP

I'd like to give my congratulations to Scott Kimble and Don King (not the boxing magnate) for making industrial rock bearable again, and for doing it without completely stealing from Nine Inch Nails. If you thought this sound died with Stabbing Westward's Darkest Days or Orgy's Vapor Transmissons, you were wrong.

Under Surveillance is an album full of energy, vitality, ideas, and talent. The songs themselves are captivating plays upon bands such as Failure, Raunchy, Filter, Nine Inch Nails, and My Vitriol.

The band jumps between garbled basslines and hard-hitting guitar riffs to effects-laden excursions and electronically-enhanced vocal battery with deft precision and ability.
- Ben Rice

Review #1 - Todd Hunter

Bandmates long before the advent of Terminus Victor, Scott Kimble and Don King attack their instruments every time with the excitement of kids opening Christmas presents. Consequently, Terminus Victor is one of Champaign's most compelling acts, although difficult to market: a fact more frustrating because release of Under Surveillance was postponed one year by perfectionism, then an ice storm.

The album's greatest asset is its handicap: epic masterpiece "A Scream in the Park" clocks in at almost seven minutes. So vivid and arresting, it dwarfs what is immediately beforehand and afterward. It is the oldest here, while "Your Nemesis" is the newest here, and who would have thought Terminus Victor could be so catchy? With its sucker-punch-to-the-gut interjection, "I thought you should know / Your nemesis knows ... " it contains the year's hardest-hitting hook, and like a lot here, communicates more than it actually says.

"The Mechanical Eye" and "Arctic Living" are newer-sounding songs that lose a little of their live impact, yet stand on their own. "Just get out of debt!" resonates as a refrain in "The Mechanical Eye," and "Arctic Living" still hints at its live razzle-dazzle. "Useless Abduction" and "Chemical Relief" weight the beginning with a bridge to older-sounding Terminus Victor, non-stick electro-industrial with heart, before the requiem "A Scream in the Park" rains out most memory thereof. There is studio experimentation, too: "Hopelessly Domesticated" is an indulgent intro to "Viewers like You," a song arm in arm with the album title and theme.

Whether or not what hardcore fans had hoped for, Under Surveillance is a stark improvement over Mastering the Revels and allows Terminus Victor an up-to-date advertisement beyond its touring radius. Its only sin is setting the bar so high so soon.

Review #2 - Ashish Patel

How much metal do I hear that I can actually respect? I can count the bands on one hand. Well, Terminus Victor just took one of my fingers. With their newest release, Under Surveillance, Terminus Victor puts out an album that shouts the ballad of a world plastic and uncaring in a way that make your ears smile. From the very first track, this duo grabs your attention and never let go, pulling you in further and further until you find yourself in a cold and unfair world, only to wake up and find that it's still the one you started in.

The instrumentals this album boasts shine in nearly all of the tracks, with songs like "The Mechanical Eye" and "Your Nemesis" featuring deep, dark bass and blaring guitar work which complement each other so well that if they were played in any other context you would think they were cheating on each other. All of this is based on excellent drum work that lays a solid foundation throughout the entire album, but the most interesting part is that there is no drummer, all of the drum work is done by a drum machine. So I have this to say to you, dear lady: BEEP BEEP BIP BOOP BEEP. All in all, Under Surveillance is a solid album which, if you've caught the "I NEED TO ROCK OUT" bug, may just be the cure.
- Todd Hunter & Ashish Patel

Finding and apt comparison for Terminus Victor is problematic, because rock 'n' roll like this hardly exists anymore. That’s part of what I love about this band: they’re completely (and sometimes naively) unafraid of the fact that their music won’t exactly fit within their peer group, and they’re better for it. In the band’s bio, Don Gerard writes that TV aims to “explore/exploit the notion of combining man and machine,” and this begins to reach the core of the band.

Comprised of Scott Kimble (bass/vocals/drum programming), Don King (guitar/tech support) and a drum machine, the duo (they might prefer “trio”) performs in a hellfire of electronic drums and uber-distorted guitars, but there’s enough evidence in TV’s penchant for melody to complicate any concrete descriptions. Brands of industrial and metal intermingle with hints of Helmet and sometimes Faith No More (especially in the juxtaposition of hard rock and vocal harmony). TV covered Slint at last year’s Cover Up, which makes as much sense as anything I’ve been able to spit out so far.

With Under Surveillance, TV has never sounded so alive on a record. Part of this is a result of a knowledgeable producer in Matt Talbott, but a larger part lies in this batch of songs being the band’s best and most complex to date. TV’s second full-length is a mechanical explosion of guttural hard rock and melody, an informed musical monster that trumps its past and heeds light toward a still-strengthening future. Well done!

- Zack Adcock

Back when I was a youth and the world was a garden of earthly delights, there was a band called Arcwelder. I guess Arcwelder is still shambling about Minneapolis, but it's been a while since I've heard this particular mechanical punk sound.

Which isn't to say these boys are any sort of carbon copy. The drum machine alone is a huge change (Terminus Victor is two guys, and the programming completes the trio), but there's just a certain epic something that provides a pleasant echo to my ears.

The sound itself is sharp and technical, but not sterile. The guitars wail, the bass slides in next to the drum machine (as it should, as Scott Kimble handles both tasks) and the vocals have that half-AOR/half-industrial sound to them. Very cool.

So, yeah, maybe this is some sort of bastard child of Arcwelder and Bloodstar (a Swiss metallic industrial duo from years--many, many years--past). That's just fine with me. Loud, vaguely melodic and sweetly acerbic. Ah, yes, that's how I like my tea.
- Anonymous

TERMINUS VICTOR "Under Surveillance" - Innocent Words Records [May 2006]

This unusual sophomore release from the Illinois-based duo Terminus Victor definitely has some interesting qualities. Usually programmed drums are painfully obvious but in the hands of a savvy programmer and when used wisely they don't distract, which is pretty much the case here.

On one or two songs they sort of overkill the old double bass kick which drops them into unfortunate cliché-land but mostly use them wisely and to good effect, and they do drop in some live drums on one of the tracks for variety.

Terminus Victor has a looming and dark intensity to their songs which are largely based on distorted guitar tones but the electronic elements surface enough to keep it interesting and out of the realm of nu-metal or gloom rock. There's some obvious Nine Inch Nails influence, some similarities to old SST band No Man, and perhaps even a touch of some Ministry at work here, but T.V. steers towards the more complex and sinister ends of the spectrum and away from hyper accelerated guitar loops.

The strength of the material comes from the clever layering and arranging of the songs combined with the perpetually heaviness of sound. They do their shit well and somehow are able to maintain their dark edge without coming across as cartoonishly "evil" or anything. The high pitch of the vocals keeps it more accessible and contrasts the otherwise low end vibe of the music. Good stuff and probably a band to keep an eye on. Hopefully it won't take another three years between this and their next release.

7 on a scale of 1-11.
- The Swede

TERMINUS VICTOR

“Under Surveillance” – Innocent Words

For what it’s worth, I’m not too familiar with Terminus Victor (this is their second release, and I never heard their debut album, Mastering the Revels, and therefore have no basis for comparison) and I don’t listen to much industrial rock, but I can say this — this is a fine record, and with all the comparisons I’ve read likening this band to Orgy, Stabbing Westward, Filter, or Nine Inch Nails, I can say this vastly improves my opinion of the fading genre. The second track, “The Mechanical Eye,” is one of the best songs from any album I’ve heard in a while — a driving, fuzzy bass line, the catchy refrain, and the relentless vocals (with the repeated refrain of “you’ve got to get out of debt!”) makes for a fun and memorable track that hearkens back to mid-’90s rock — mainstream alternative rock music you might have hid from your friends to save face, but secretly rocked out to shamelessly. The nearly-seven-minute long epic, “A Scream in the Park,” is also a standout — normally, I wouldn’t have the attention span to listen to a track that long from start to finish, but it’s an addicting song, and the fact that I was listening to it in my car seems appropriate — it would be a good addition to any road trip mixtape. Scott Kimble is an adept songwriter, and the fact that this entire album is wholly the product of him and guitarist Don King is unexpected, as it possesses the depth of a recording produced with an entire backing band — I suppose utilizing drum programming and sampling adds to the fullness of the sound. I’m sure that diehard fans and fans of the industrial genre (and the bands I listed previously) will be satisfied with this release. However, I think that fans who aren’t particularly into bands such as NIN should still give this a try — you will likely be pleasantly surprised
- Jackson Ellis