One has to be careful when talking about Killingtheoldman; it's so easy to throw around words like "gothic" and "industrial." And if you throw around those kind of terms, you're bound to get all sorts of clichéd images: the band that tries to be really dark and mopey, but just comes off as silly; lyrics that sound like a bad rip-off of some high schooler's existential poetry (you know, the kind you wrote at that age); and an image that's more pretense and bad makeup than anything else. While there's no denying that The Violence of Sound falls into the "goth" and "industrial" categories, it does so while circumventing many of those genres' pitfalls. However, it's not without a few of its own.
From the start, The Violence of Sound doesn't sound like your average "goth" album. The reverbed guitar and organ that open up "Evolved" sounds more spaghetti western than Sisters of Mercy. Joe Kopnick's vocals are actually fairly "normal" sounding. In other words, he rarely sounds like he's trying to sound ghoulish and macabre, and that's a good thing. When his vocals do sound menacing and intense, it's because they are, and not just because he's some guy trying to sound spooky. Another thing I immediately noticed is that The Violence of Sound is a very rhythmic record, with a great deal of emphasis placed on odd bits and pieces of percussion. The result is a less atmospheric sound, but one that's harsher and far more driving. And one that helps drive home the dark points that Killingtheoldman is trying to make.
If you're looking for dark ominous lyrics about the futility of life and the beauty of darkness, you'll be in for a bit of a surprise. Killingtheoldman is more concerned with social issues than with emotional ones. On "Evolved," Kopnick howls "The digital age has raped us/Taking away our humanity." "The Violence of Sound" (my favorite track on the album) deals with themes of abuse. Kopnick delivers lyrics like "Strike with fist, victim lies bleeding" over buzzsaw guitars and metallic percussion. A song like that has enough depth to give most of Killingtheoldman's peers pause. "Mechanique Simplex" is a condemnation of social decay, fame, and greed set to a martial beat of digital noises, modem dialings, gurgling beeps... a whole technological cacophony. It may seem a little over the top, but it certainly helps drive the song's point home.
So what are the pitfalls? The second half of the album consists of tracks that explore all sorts of rhythmic attacks -- harsh metallic percussion, industrial beats, and odd samples. If you're into that kind of stuff -- imagine Oval playing with the sounds of factories, foundries, and mills instead of damaged CDs and gamelan recordings -- then you'll get into it. I'm reminded of Controlled Bleeding's more post-industrial leanings, such as the less monastic material on Songs From the Ashes.
For my money however, the stronger songs on the disc are the more song-oriented material, tracks like "The Violence of Sound" and "Mark XIII," where Killingtheoldman takes their noise/experimental tendencies and integrates them with a more structured sound. It makes the material more interesting. As harsh and grating as the later tracks may be, they still find a way of just sinking into the background while listening to it.
I've said it time and again... I'm all for "experimental" music, but there has to be some musical element, whether it's a hint of melody or something else, for me to really dig in and listen to it. It's this pitfall that The Violence of Sound ultimately finds itself in, of exploring and delving into its more "experimental" ("post-industrial," "avant-garde," or whatever you want to call it) side so far that it just ends up getting lost. It gets too random, too unfocused to really do anything for me.
