ALEC EMPIRE - The Golden Foretaste Of Heaven

Alexander Wilke, known as Alec Empire, is a figure who has earned the utmost respect over the years. Both for his work with Atari Teenage Riot and for a solo career that has touched on a huge variety of styles, mutations and contaminations with real interest and curiosity. Right up to the double album "Intelligence & Sacrifice", which a few years ago represented the peak, and the summation, of his artistic journey.

Having made this necessary premise, we can move on to tearing apart, without appeal, this disaster called "The Golden Foretaste of Heaven". What happened to brave old Alec? The already confused "Futurist" - nothing more than yet another poor copy of Ministry - had already given worrying signs. But that's pure gold compared to this "Golden Foretaste", which is a sheer collapse, without a doubt the worst result of his career.

Nothing is left of the good old "digital hardcore": it has all faded into a harmless hybrid of stale rock and third-hand electronics. Perhaps even under the illusion of setting a trend, the latest fashionable Berlin genre, good at best for rich kids playing at being alternative. In this sense, the best Alec manages to achieve is churning out a couple of passable little singles for undemanding DJs, "New Man" and "Ice" - and don't be fooled by the latter's intro, modelled on the Reznor-esque - of course - and legendary "Closer".

The rest of the album sinks into boredom.

Alec's skill behind the mixing desk guarantees crisp, precise sounds, but that's certainly not enough to save such a withered and lazy artistic vein. Having lost the expressive urgency that used to set fire to the best pages of his music, Alec no longer seems to even feel like taking risks or experimenting. A worrying symptom.

His voice has become unbearable, the usual slogans stammered without conviction, his songwriting is no longer capable of surprising anyone, and amid the general mediocrity Alec's career hits rock bottom with an embarrassing "Down Satan Down", an electro-mess that not even the worst Lcd Soundsystem could match.

Even the heavier tracks fail to convince, like "Death Trap" and "On Fire". The former is drowned in distorted, limp beats, the latter is just banal rock-by-numbers. The appreciable, if overlong, slowed-down interlude of "1000 Eyes" certainly isn't enough to salvage a record with no purpose, no life, no identity.

If this is the "New Man" Alec Empire, then there's little to be cheerful about; all that's left is to hope that somewhere out there the young, creative sound-terrorist we admired for years is still alive. A melancholy thought, and the only thing "The Golden Foretaste…" leaves behind before completing its swift journey to the bin.

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09/01/2008