This is the fourth officially full-length release of this striking German project, which has developed through the past years to one of the global scene-players regarding Harsh Electro/EBM/Industrial music. May I don’t have to mention the multiple playing fields in which Jan L. likes to contribute his efforts in – so this is for the very few readers, which haven’t heard before of his projects. X-FUSION stands for the main music project and offers a violent and rough kind of end-time Electro/Industrial pretty much along the :WUMPSCUT:/THE RETROSIC/STARK formula.
Jan has also built his very own X-M-P-studios, in which he produces several scene-related bands, plus he runs also the successful side-project NOISUF-X which rather follows the ideal of a rhythmical Powernoise artist. Some more contributions he likes to put into his mail order service X-Beats and the label Dephyte Records. Matured and experienced is his ability to combine fragile-like melodic inserts with cold and at times fuzzy distorted bass and rhythm patterns, accomplished with a raw and monstrous sounding male vocal performance. In times when the hardcore-Electro listener awaits a new milestone in this stagnant scene after :WUMPSCUT:’s "Embryodead", X-FUSION may holds the right weapon loaded in his hand – while "Rotten To The Core" also offers a lot stuff to infect your mind with slower paced sinister and creepy tunes.
After the dark "Drowning In Deep Silence" the first smasher "Defiled And Raped" rules the scenario and leads the purists to some Pogo action on the floors. With "Traitors Of Our Age" you’ll got maybe the most outstanding work for the danceable-minded tracks, while "Rotten To The Core", "My Inner Storm Blows" and "Death Plan" can nearly rival this. But best track to me is the rather mid-tempo based "Pitch Black" – besides the rough vocals with the easy to follow refrain part (...although hefty distorted, Jan’s vocals are nevertheless one of the winning points for X-FUSION), his well-done melodic synth textures are proof your a higher musically training – Lee Bulig of STARK couldn’t do it any better, applause! This is a fine and for the short-haired EBM/Industrial freak a must-have release – the only tiny thing to criticize is the fact that also "Rotten To The Core" can’t and doesn’t try to offer anything new – but who can nowadays?
Available also as a DCD digi-pack featuring the extra-CD "Bloody Pictures, or as a special box set featuring in all three CD’s with the main release. "Bloody Pictures" and "Choir Of Damnation" offer both unreleased tracks, alternative versions and some remix works created by SUICIDE COMMANDO, RUN LEVEL ZERO or SOLITARY EXPERIMENTS to name a few examples. Try to purchase this soon hard-to-get item ASAP, it is worth any investment!