Band:	Plasma Pool
Album:	Drowning - II
Style:	Electronica
Release date:	1997
Guest review by:	Karlabos

01. Intro: Fear
02. Brainsucker
03. Sick Of Rain
04. Again
05. Wet Desert
06. Enter To My Me
07. Satellite
08. Chanceless Religion
09. False The Saints
10. Prince Of Fire
11. 1993
12. Outro: Fear

I suspect that many of you have already heard the name of Attila Csihar and have experienced the wide variety of insanity that he manages to awaken in us with his vocals. Attila started as a vocalist in the late '80s as a metal vocalist, and later ended up performing vocals for a numerous amount of more experimental projects, such as Sunn O))), Gravetemple, Burial Chamber Trio, et al. Plasma Pool seems to be the first one among them; however, it unfortunately didn't live up to be one of his most famous performances.

So what can you expect on this release? Well, it's by no means drone metal in the vein of Sunn O))), and even less so when it comes to black metal. Plasma Pool play sort of an industrial electronica. The music is highly based on its dark feeling, which the band enhances with synths and keyboards that follow digital beats that work as a form of drums. Actually, the beats are what sets Plasma Pool aside from other types of dark ambient projects. What is interesting production-wise is that even if this is a live album, it is so well recorded that you can't really tell that it is. It has a very nice production. (I wonder if the information is actually incorrect and this is recorded in a studio.) Anyway, the beats and melodies are catchy and memorable enough to whistle them while in the shower or something after a good listen, but I must confess that these things aren't really what's so important about this release. What is important here, and what makes this release so distinct, is Attila's vocals. If you are still interested in the album at this point then it's safe to assume you've already heard a couple of Sunn O))) songs on which he sings? Sinister? What about De Mysteriis? Crazy? What about the Tormentor release? Well, write down what I'm about to say: None of these live up to Attila's performance on Drowning II. This is just insane. Mad. Weird. Odd. Unbelievable.

Attila sings well above the mix and in the sickest way possible, with that semi-guttural and somewhat throat singing way that only he knows how to do. Expect the choruses to end in dragged, high-pitched sinister ways. I can't really tell what is going on here, as it's something that just can't be described. I'm just writing this to try to convince you to listen to it for yourself.

I honestly don't know what happened for this album to end up so "underground" among the projects that he is involved in. This is a little masterpiece. If you consider yourself a fan of Attila's extravaganza, and if you still haven't listened to this, then you are wasting your time. Get your hands on this at once.