When Rexx Arkana sneers "these are the lies that we tell ourselves, the deep disappointment that we know so well" on Urban Audio Warfare 's leading "Children of Decay," he might as well be talking about the entire EBM movement over the last decade and a half. Once upon a time, rivetheads huffed and puffed (and stomped) their way through the scene like so many tyranosaurical Rexx-es, pun intended, laying claim to dance floors around the world, involving all in their rageful suffering. Then Wax Trax! released Psychosonik and like the dinosaurs before them, the gearboys vanished. Waves of wimpier techno, trance, synth- and futurepop ruled the world --- or at least the clubs --- until acts like :Wumpscut:, Suicide Commando and Hocico arrived to pierce the darkness with their beacons of angry electronics. Many heralded next-big-things followed, but too often thudded, their polished images and derivative musical incantations echoing like hollow whispers, to borrow from Rexx's other, better known Bruderschaft project.

On Urban Audio Warfare, FGFC820 may not break the mold, but they've surely dented the hell out of it. Their name is the only thing cryptic about this project, as their message rings loud and clear. Rexx and his DJ partner Dräcos, who contributed the best of the two dozen odd remixes on Bruderschaft's Forever EP, deliver face-pounding, riot-inducing beats, menacingly and unapologetically, in the form of 73 minutes of pure, hard EBM thunder.

On certain club smashes like "Martyrdom", "Society", "Perfect War", "Comatose" and "GBA", Rexx seethes distorted on the ideas of isolationism, nationalism, sacrilegiousness and the decay of modern civilization. If the subject matter sounds trite for the genre, it's no more cliché than human experience itself. After all, who hasn't ever felt angry, rejected or out-of-place in this world?

While they never quite abandon their traditional roots, it's clear that FGFC820 not only welcome change, but also advocate it, so long as a greater purpose may be served. "Existence" splinters off into a violent break beat style. "Anthem" drops the bass line in triplet form, while the instrumental "Resolution Number 5" can only be described as West Coast (the hip-hop connotation of the term) industrial.

Yet, nowhere on this record do FGFC820 forget where they came from or their reason for being here. Simply put, FGFC820 intend to cause damage of both the musical and intellectual sort and they are largely successful in achieving those goals on their debut release. If Urban Audio Warfare doesn't awaken the rivethead armies from their slumber, then perhaps they all really have deserted their posts.