Band:	The Kovenant
Album:	Animatronic
Style:	Industrial metal
Release date:	November 16, 1999
Guest review by:	Angel

01. Mirrors Paradise
02. New World Order
03. Mannequin
04. Sindrom
05. Jihad
06. The Human Abstract
07. Prophecies Of Fire
08. In The Name Of The Future
09. Spaceman [Babylon Zoo cover]
10. The Birth Of Tragedy
11. New World Order [Remix by Matt Sinner] [Japanese bonus]

After hearing the first two tracks of "Animatronic", I have to check the inlay again for a mistaken CD in the case, since this new record doesn't sound like Covenant. Oh no, it's The Kovenant, formed out of the ashes of Covenant, after the previous guitar player decided to quit. But it's not just the change of bandname that's important. The radical change of sound isn't always bad (Nexus Polaris/Animatronic is way better than Master of Puppets/Reload...), but just had me shocked for about half an hour. The new sound features an awful lot of industrial influences, and despite the lack of a second guitar, this album rocks!

You black metalheads who expected to hear a new "In Times Before The Light" could better stop reading at this point. As a matter of fact, if you never heard of Ministry before, you'd better stop. The definite satanic sound is really well combined with the way Von Blomberg's dropped his bassdrums, and the wonderful Rammstein-guitar tuning by Psy Coma is really, well, refreshing. Whilst "Nexus Polaris" was cold and direct, "Animatronic" is the better industrial record, mixing keyboards, direct bass and a beautiful woman's voice. Such a wonderful combination of instruments can't develop in something you wouldn't like.