SWEDISH EBM - The Collection: a review

Look what the cat brought in! Look what the cat brought in! A mighty pleasant and hard-hitting Christmas present, that's what. Otherwise, those words are a chant in the new ultra fast and extra punk Container 90 song "Copycat" on the great release from Fist Fight Records - a various artists CD with some of the best Swedish anhalt EBM bands.

Fist Fight Records is a new label featuring new Swedish bands, such as No Sleep By The Machine and Stockholm Wrecking Crew, and three other bands which will soon release their debute albums. One of their first releases is Swedish EBM - The Collection featuring known Swedish oldschool EBM bands, as well as some up and runners. Click on their myspace link to see the details as well as the ordering options. The release includes 14 new tracks.

Musically, this collection is a mix of most subgenres oldschool EBM has to offer. The pure elctropunk part is covered by Container 90 with their fastest, most energetic (and thus shortest, in good punk tradition) track so far. The other punky parts which keep appearing in Swedish anhalt EBM are presented by T.W.A.T and their oi-punk influenced style, and Stockholm Wrecking Crew show off their unique and well developed, particularly hardcore and strong style.

The more general anhalt/oldschool EBM style is covered by Turnbull A.C's and Spetsnaz, which continue in their well know musical footsteps. There is also energy-filled as always Kropp and bass-filled Astma. Amongst the most old school sounding tracks is No Sleep By The Machine with its unique and catchy style, and Projekt Tanz which seem to be influenced in part by old school techno, as always presenting extremely catchy beats with a good dose of humour.

Autodafeh follow in their footsteps as well, the new track fitting well into the style of their latest album release. SPARK! present a very anhalt-ebm sounding and hard-beating track at first, which then explodes into more melodic style, what they have increasingly become known for. And in the end there is Dupont with an earlier version of one of their harder songs, Batch ID with a synth-pop track influenced by harder EBM style; and another masterpeice from Sturm Café and their recently developed style that is a mix of everything that is good: anhalt ebm, old school electro, Madonna-bass, italo disco, neue deutsche welle, and their own fresh catchyness.

Swedish EBM - The Collection is not only a very varied and great collection of anhalt and old school EBM, which for that reason will be an album that will be listened to on repeat for a loooong time. But it also does a great job at representing Swedish EBM, what it has done in the past and what it has to offer in the future, across the growing variety of bands and subgenres of anhalt EBM. There is only one thing that it lacks and that is EkoBrottsMyndigheten!

The track list is as follows:
1. Spetsnaz - Satiric Strokes
2. Autodafeh - Camp Intel
3. Kropp - Avreagera
4. Turnbull A.C's - Unique
5. No Sleep By The Machine - Yellow Mica
6. SPARK! - Singelolycka
7. Stockholm Wrecking Crew - Barnsoldat
8. Dupont - Behave (2009)
9. T.W.A.T. - The Barricades
10. Batch ID - Ifred
11. Sturm Café - Scheissnormal
12. Projekt Tanz - Not The King of Body
13. Astma - The Directors Cut
14. Container 90 - Copycat

http://www.myspace.com/fistfightrecordsswe - order the physical copy of it here.

The king of swedish body!