MORLOCKS ...FOR YOUR PLEASURE? ALBUM NANGIJALA RELEASE: MARCH 25, 2002 REVIEW: APRIL 18, 2002

Is this record mocking me? Are Morlocks really honest here, or are they playing their music with big sneers on their faces? I mean, seriously. They keep shifting musical styles throughout the album like a bored kid zapping the channels of a television set. All the inspirational sources of this group of gamers and goth/synth/industrial fanboys are plain to see. But rather than making something of these the influences, they seem to prefer poking fun at them, never quite getting into anything properly.
They deliver medieval kitsch in ”Ars Magica”, with lyrics retelling the setting of the roleplaying game of the same name. Then ZAP! to ”Hardcore?”, a not so hardcore song in some kind of Front Line Assembly style. Many channels are showing fantasy, prominently featuring goblins and dragons while flirting with Cold Meat Industry soundscapes.
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! I would like to stop on some channel and see what happens later. I can hear a lot of stray ambition that never quite gets a chance to develop. They could go for the catchy choruses of ”Mass Stroke Attack”. Or for the bombastic, if somewhat nerdy horror classicism of ”March of the Goblins”. Or maybe even for the synthpop sounds of ”Truth or Betrayal”. Any of them might be a good choice. So get serious, chuck out the television and rock!

MATTIAS HUSS