Maor Appelbaum is a producer/musician coming from Israel. On his collaboration list he has as musician: Vultures (I reviewed their two releases), Moonskin, Thy Mesmerized, Beta-Blocker, Old Man's Splitfoot, etc. As producer he worked with big names such as Marc Almond (England), The Legendary Pink Dots (England - Netherlands), Sophya (Israel - Netherlands), Apoptigma-Berzerk (Norway), Death In June (England), Hocico (Mexico), etc. Along with Tal Galfsky he begun to work at IWR back in 1999. Since then he produced only few compilation tracks until 2006, when for Black Rain they released their debut album "Groud zero". Devotee to e.b.m./industrial the duo on this new album titled COLD ASYLUM is bringing seven new tracks with the help of two female vocalists (Moran Uliel and Michal Jakubowicz) on "Ketamine sedation", "Wreckage" and "New age". Their style take a lot inspiration from Hocico and Velvet Acid Christ (especially because the use of distorted/whispered vocals) and thanks to Maor's production skills the sound is powerful and thick. Unfortunately this isn't enough for making sound this album fresh and different for all its length. For sure the three tracks featuring the vocal guests are working well thanks to the diversification of distorted male/clean female vocals but the remaining four don't offer nothing different from nice powerful industrial e.b.m. music (if you also count that "Black city" is a sort of industrial version of Carl Orff Carmina Burana's most known track "Fortuna imperatrix mundi"). The four remixes, instead, sound to me better than some original versions. "New dawn (Dark chamber remix)", for example, gathers a new life thanks to a total new approach: more intriguing, electro and cinematic.