Alec Empire – Intelligence And Sacrifice (2002)

March 14, 2013
Alec Empire – Intelligence And Sacrifice (2002)

Another nostalgic blast from the past for me! Thanks to Zoverstocks selling on Amazon for 3p a record, I managed to get my hands on another album that I’ve put off buying for years. Before the industrial brigade get all up in my grill about how my info on Mr. Empire is all wrong, I must tell you I write this all as an outsider to Alec Empire’s / Atari Teenage Riot’s long career(s).

This is another one of those albums that treads into the dangerous territory of mixing hardcore dance music with metal. As we all know, that either goes really well (The Berzerker) or really, really badly (Tourette Syndrom – sorry guys! Ha ha). Alec Empire tends here to stick to more digestible song structures that the two previously mentioned examples, so the chance of him going wrong is a lot lower. However, this record is definitely not for everyone. I’m not even sure if it is for me. I tend to come back to it every so often with a grin and a thought along the lines of “this is genius ” but just as often put it back on the shelf thinking “Jesus, my head hurts, make it stop!”.

There are some cracking stand-out tracks here, however. “Everything Starts with a Fuck” (both parts) is the best example of what this record is all about, and is, in a word: stonking. Lead single “Addicted to You” is simply just that; addictive, if you’d excuse the awful choice of words. And, for those of you with a disdain for the regular song structures, the album comes with a huge bonus disc of extra material filled to the brim with all sorts of weird shit; some of it bordering on harsh noise, some of it dancey, and some of it is just half-hour long ambient soundscapes. A bit of everything, then. In fact, the whole package is a bit much and a touch overwhelming. Out on DHR, which is Empire’s own label.

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