FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY MANIACAL SINGLE SYNTHETIC SYMPHONY, METROPOLIS, PLAYGROUND RELEASE: OCTOBER 21 (USA, EUROPE), OCTOBER 27 (SCANDINAVIA), 2003 REVIEW: OCTOBER 23, 2003

What we didn’t expect has happened. Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber are back together again, and are working on a new album. This single is the first taste of the new material. According to Rhys, it is not very descriptive of the album. He says that all of the good stuff is saved for the album, and I sure hope so.
The title track is of course brilliantly produced, with lots of stuff going on in the mix, and some segments of the song sound more ambient than usual. However, I feel that something is missing. The trademark chorus seems watered down and doesn’t leave any traces in my mind. It also sounds like they have tried to make a club track, but it has got way too many stop-start moments to work. Leeb sounds as usual, with the exception of the shouts "BANG" and "HEY" in the bridge before the chorus. At times there’s an extremely annoying guitar part as well. "Maniacal" is available in remixed form too, where that particular guitar riff is mostly dispensed with, but otherwise it’s just an edit really.
The saving grace on this single is instead "Anti". By golly, they did hit a home run here! Fantastic track from beginning to end. I really can’t put my finger on what makes it so good, but it has something to do with a genuinely danceable beat, supremely catchy riffs, cool voice samples, and a tremendous ambience. If you can sit still to this, you're either dead or perhaps a jazz fan. This gives me much more hope for the album than "Maniacal".

JOHAN CARLSSON