EVA O
RIDE THE MADNESS
ALBUM MASSACRE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 13, 1999 REVIEW: NOVEMBER 4, 1999


Hell is not a pretty place. Eva O paints no pretty pictures either. From the first clatter of hooves at the beginning of "Damnation & Damnation II", presumably the sound of the four riders of the apocalypse approaching, it is clear that "Ride the Madness" offers no hope, no release and no security.
Eva O's struggle against hypocrisy and her existential journey between heaven and hell has been constant since her days as companion of now deceased Rozz Williams, both in Christian Death and Shadow Project. On "Ride the Madness" she seems to have reached the point of no return, where she is forced to look straight into the eye of grim reality. It's quite a compelling, if frightening view.
At times Eva O sounds like a Diamanda Gálas with a cold crooning over layers of industrial beats and, at times, apocalyptic folk guitar playing. She lashes out at Christian fundamentalists, stares into the eye of hell and preaches Crowleyan principles, all seeming as a kind of desperate mantra to exorcise her inner demons.
The occult symbolism gets tiring at times, obscuring the person behind the music whom I would like to know more about. As most music in the electro gothic tradition, it is also a bit overly dramatic, laden with synthesizer strings and stately male backing vocals.

MATTIAS HUSS