After his first EP, 2017’s For Muthafucka Use Only, Asymmetrical returns with a new album Blind Faith. In this endeavour, Asymmetrical delves into “obsessed, self-centric culture” to create a world where nakedness is modesty, ignorance is wisdom and privacy is a dangerous perversion. With the plodding, hypnotic single Blaze, the band is inspired by Ben Elton’s dark, savagely comic novel touching upon these subjects.
Blaze is an arduous track to sit through, with distortion and disorienting instrumentation peppered with shouts, the din of nightmares, the frequency of fear. It is as unnerving as its subject material, teetering off the precipice of sanity.
The album consists of eight tracks on two densely-engraved sides, ranging from EBM to techno, from electro to New Wave, all connected by raw rhythms, noise, and distant voices. Blind Faith aims to critique post-capitalist society, and to redesign the idea and the relationship in the contemporary club.
The album’s A-side opens with the dark and pulsing and atmosphere of the cavernous “Providence” leading into the industrial funk of “Blaze”.
Watch the tour-de-force of stock footage and contemporary tragedy in the video clip for Blaze below:
Following “Blaze” is the caustic and snarling metallic rhythms of “Several Future”, which gives way to the percussive Wax Trax EBM Industrial-esque assault of “Hypercapitalism”.
First up on the album’s B-Side is the mesmerizing and unsettling “Illusional of Control”, which sounds like an epic journey through space on the back of a chainsaw. This is followed by the shimmering sci-fi console-like sounds of “Bullshit”, and echoing techno incantations of “Kriminal”.
The album closes with the title track “Blind Faith” which is a foray into rhymic looping, chirps, scratches, and poetic ramblings, having all the shivering and visceral feelings conjure from haunting live performance at a Berlin Techno-Industrial Nightclub.
Asymmetrical’s label Raw Culture is celebrating its fifth anniversary with Asymmetrical blowing out the candles. All tracks on Blind Faith written and produced by Asymmetrical at FAUNA53, Roma 2020.
Blind Faith is out now on a limited 12-inch vinyl.
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