Band:	A Scanner Darkly
Album:	A Scanner Darkly
Style:	Drone doom metal, Grindcore
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
02. Valis
03. Pay For The Printer
04. Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
05. The Man In The High Castle
06. Four Years, False Memories

A Scanner Darkly is a fairly new act from Milwaukee, heavily influenced by Philip K. Dick's books (for both their lyrics and music) this band creates a bizarre kind of Hardcore/Grindcore with pummeling patterns and a lot of experimental and Doomish overtones.

The music is intensity as its sickening best; the record itself wraps the listener with a violent atmosphere with enough variations to keep you interested to the very end. What I love the most about this sci-fi band is their ability to produce balance in their music; there are songs so brutal and fast that put any straight Grinder to shame (f.e. "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" and "The Man In The High Castle") there are also melodic songs showing their songwriting capabilities featuring complex structures, intricate scales and intense yet catchy breakdowns (f.e. "Valis" and "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" ) and finally you will also find the surprising element in the end, a droning Doom metal track with ambient approaches ala Kayno Yesno Slonce , October Falls and such artists.

I didn't know what to expect about this CD; first of all Gilead Media had to send it twice as the first copy arrived broken; then the name A Scanner Darkly kept reminding me of that novel which, in my opinion, was a failed attempt to write a book influenced by Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" with a Sci-Fi element and omitting the obsessed and great dystopian factors surrounding it. Fortunately I had the chance to fully hear and understand this album and let me tell you, it is actually one of the most powerful EP's I've heard this year.

Fans of the genre will be pleased about A Scanner Darkly; this EP is still a little rough though, but I'm sure their music will improve with time as right now it's quite impressive what these guys have accomplished already; I can't wait to hear a Full-Length with polished music and better arrangements. For now, this CD is great for a start; it's dark, vicious, experimental and really fucking intense.

Side-Note: the surrealistic layout is really impressive.