Alec Empire - 'The Golden Foretaste Of Heaven' (Eat Your Heart Out) Released 21/01/08

Something is up with Alec Empire, the prolific creator of a hundred records and black-clad leader of Germany’s digital hardcore set. He’s got a rep, has Empire, from his post-Atari Teenage Riot days as industrial music’s anti-establishment hero. But at the same time, his overtly simplified rants have seen him exposed to mockery as a living, breathing caricature of something that once had meaning. ‘The Golden Foretaste Of Heaven’ isn’t about to change that. He’s still keen on hard-hitting whims, and is obsessed with life, death, pain, God and how they all fit together. He’s got a reputation as a nihilist, has Empire, but he seems to have way to much agnosticism to hold it all together. ‘If You Live Or Die’ states: “It’s simple to say goodbye to a face that doesn’t care if you live or die/You live so far from God/You want in that way.” Okay so that’s an observation, not a statement of belief.

But check ‘Down Satan Down’: “Come on Satan, take me down/In this life we live and die and live again/And seem to learn nothing about ourselves.” God, Satan, whatever, its still religion. Maybe he’s just challenging the most famous fallen angel. Then again, when he growls: “She’s got more money than love,” you sense his distaste. Confusing indeed.

But he’s not one to mince his words, and saying things just to provoke is certainly in his manifesto. “Welcome to the state of the beast/To eat, and to be eaten,” he riles on ‘Death Trap in 3d’; “Poison the doorway with a firefly cigarette/Three strokes of a razor/Three strokes of a razor/I put my doubts away,” he threatens on ‘Ice (As If She Could Steal A Piece Of My Glamour).

Musically, Empire is PHAT. For an entirely electronic record, it is phenomenally heavy. Claustrophobic, intensely menacing electro and insanely distorted krautrock, it conjures up images of seriously twisted individuals getting their rocks off. Tracks like ‘On Fire’ boom out from blood drenched speakers at the last rave before the apocalypse. The noise he makes is enormous; and plenty of people blossoming from hardships and wandering what it all means would probably get a sense of enlightenment from the aggressive freedom he preaches.

It’s also somehow reassuring to know his egomania is intact. On ‘Robot L.O.V.E’ he repeats: “Now that you’ve found out/Do you still love me?” and tracks entitled ‘Ice (As If She Could Steal A Piece Of My Glamour)’ are nowhere near as ironic as they should be.

Big sounds and strong words dominate Empire’s creations, but whether or not they actually speak to people is concerning. And quite what a golden foretaste of heaven might be, is open to discussion. Sordid indeed.