Country: Italy
Genre: Electronic industrial metal
EP: New Alcatraz
Format: Digital
Label: The Triad Records
Release date: April 17, 2025
Imagine, if you will, being imprisoned in a computer matrix, with no knowledge of how you arrived there, meeting an AI doppelganger of yourself with whom you’re inexorably drawn until you merge and become one with it. This is what you get from Chain's "New Alcatraz," which fuses organic metal and electro-industrial sounds at the genetic level, spawning a mechanized human-cyborg hybrid to turn loose upon the world.
Although the premise of "New Alcatraz" is somewhat similar to films like "The Terminator," "I, Robot," "Ex Machina," and "The Matrix," it’s far more intricate and personal. It would likely be as` unconventional and incisive as "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" were in their respective eras if it was reimagined as a film. It would be a subject of debate for years to come.
This human-cyborg hybrid, according to the Triad Records, is home to an ancient creature of some sort that has a single-minded, near-pathological urge to exact revenge on humanity for past transgressions. To remind us that we as a species are motivated by a similar, deeply rooted urge that’s part of our psyches from conception, this concept of vengeance is channeled with a raw, spontaneous energy.
When other bands carefully and meticulously take time to establish themselves through their songs, Chain is constantly on the point of overtaking and overwhelming the listener with an instantaneous, demanding shove forward. In less than a quarter hour, you’re assaulted by inexorable waves of sound that seem to converge on you from every direction, piercing your head with a thousand needles hooked to robotic snakelike appendages before erupting from within.
From a distance, you hear what sounds like the beating of an artificial heart powering a huge city—possibly the city shown in Simone Trausi's cover art—as if alerting you to the impending chaos. The album's antihero, probably reborn from this very city, reappears almost immediately after that brief introduction. The powerful electronic sounds and discordant synthesizers telling the story are arranged to create musical rhythm, much like Devo had when they helped redefine new wave.
That was the song "Dark & Bass." Starting with "Bloody Hell/Out of Control," the powerful electronic rhythms are accompanied by guitars, bass, and acoustic percussion. Each song presents the organic elements with greater emphasis, signifying the antihero's personal battle to escape his cybernetic shell. The lyrics, which emphasize his desire to subjugate and subject humanity to his vengeance with greater ferocity, are presented in a harsh, frenzied, manic style.
Chain significantly enhances the connection between traditional music and futuretech, taking the sophisticated violence pioneered by Godflesh, Fear Factory, KMFDM, Pitchshifter, and Skinny Puppy into new stomping grounds. The frenzied intensity of the production and mixing lends all the instruments a bright vitality in addition to thinning the lines between the string and keyboard instruments. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Lorenzo Schiavo: Chain
Massimo Lombardo: Faxe
Dj Giuseppe Caccetta: Illegal B
Track list:
1. Dark & Bass
2. Bloody Hell (Out of Control)
3. Kalashnikov
4. New Alcatraz
5. Bohemian Party
6. Neon Predators
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