The Substance D

Substance-D is a fairly young and experimental project, born in 2007. It has been described on their MySpace page as a "networking project" - also referring to the locations mentioned - that has its roots in both Chicago and Italy. The first proof of existence and/or the first attempt to conquer the world comes wrapped in a self-titled five track demo.

The release opens with 'No More Regrets'. It's an accessable track, including many influences from out of the electro metal and the wave corner. It's build on recogniseable programming, wave sampling and keylines and a heavy bassline, while added raw clean vocals and wellfitting riffing. 'Is Myself On Straight' is a decent electro metal song, with excellent sampling and recogniseable vocal lines. It consists of repeatative riffing, a wave approach on the song structure and a nearly catchy chorus. It's a song that even shows charts potential. 'Melody Cracked' is a dark atmospheric song, mostly ambient electronic based, including bashing programming and soft sensitive vocal lines. The chorus is of a more lighter kind, thanks to the keylines and the recogniseable riffing. The song ends with surprisingly heavy electro metal tunes. 'Kaleidoscope' comes up next. It's a song with melancholic touches, brought to you by the interaction of the clean guitarwork and the vocal lines. As well the song contains strong drumming and essential electronic sampling - melted together by a protounding bassline. 'Heroes' is the final track on the release. It's a bass driven track, sometimes even exposing little links to dub, with a repetative drum line and sensitive vocal lines. It as well includes snoaring guitars and subtile sampling, which mark an essential part of this track.

Substance-D delivers an accessable and very decent release with this self-titled demo. It's style can be compared to bands such as Volkmar and Chrisallys, with the difference that Substance-D brings in a little more different influences from time to time, like the post-punk influences I didn't mention 'till now. I'm curious how this band will sound like on a future full-lenght with a more professional production.

Vote: 80 / 100 - industrializedmetal