SHOCK OF REALITY ABYSMAL REALITY ALBUM ZOTH OMMOG RELEASE: OCTOBER 16, 2000 REVIEW: DECEMBER 19, 2000

Zoth Ommog's new stars make pure, no-frills German electronic body music, complete with "cool" movie samples and plenty of apocalyptic angst. The environment is fucked, life is a battle and the sun is probably hidden behind some mushroom cloud of a recently dropped atomic bomb.
All this is conveyed through smattering electro beats as well as sounds and vocals pretty familiar to fans of the hard German body genre. "Abysmal Reality" reminds me a bit of Project Pitchfork, and also shares some problems with them. The vocals of the singer Senor Chato (who drops some Spanish lines here and there) are mostly hoarse and suppressed. They sound a bit forced and don't really manage to convey the cynical message of the group. While the attitude of the music is in accordance to the spirit of harsh body music, "Abysmal Reality" lacks good melodies to balance the cold, sunglasses-after-dark kind of cyberpunk attitude that can really get on your nerves at times.
After all the dark ominous tales, at least the album ends with a soothing loveballad. More of that would be nice, and the oriental inspiration taken on "Sacrifice/Testify" would definitely be worth pursuing further in the future.

MATTIAS HUSS