RXG-242-11

'RXG-242-11' - Senmuth (6/10)

The seventh album released under the Senmuth name, the strangely titled 'RXG-242-11' shows yet another slow but steady development in the overall sound of this industrial metal act. While the brand of typically upbeat, distorted and 'danceable' metal Senmuth usually employs still faces the same issues it has suffered from it's inception, there is solace to be found in the music's softer segments. While this Russian one-man project has never gone long without throwing unconventional ethnic styles into the mix, never before in his career has the integration of metal and non-metal aspects been so effective. There is still alot of mediocrity that seems to have gone along with the sheer quantity of music the man has made over the years, but interspersed between the partially-memorable heavy tracks are a few stunning gems that really speak of Senmuth's talent and potential as an artist.

Perhaps as a foreshadowing to Senmuth's next project ('Kami-No-Miti') which would focus greatly around the Oriental school of music, 'RXG' has a heavier emphasis on Chinese/Japanese music than usual, although some Indian and classical European stylings appear throughout the album. It is actually the influence of European classical music that seems to be the biggest development here in terms of actual sounds. Before this, Senmuth generally stuck to extracting music from cultures outside that of Europe. While it may simply be a matter of personal taste, I find the European stylings (generally based in the piano presence, while the string orchestration maintains an eastern flair) to feel very natural for the direction Senmuth seems to be pushing towards. While some of his softer orchestrations have sounded a bit too artificial and novel in the past, he is clearly improving his craft of making the music (and album as a whole) feel more fluid and organic.

Among the highlights of 'RXG' is the epic oriental track 'Coast Of The Carried Away Lives,' which proves the point of Senmuth's improved metal/non-metal integration, and the stunning 'Megiste Syntaxis' duology, which is the closer to my version of the album. Probably not coincidentally, all of the most memorable and profound tracks are instrumental. While I have made it clear in past reviews that I am not a fan of Senmuth's distortion-box vocal style, the strength of the instrumentals makes the wound that much deeper. Should Senmuth release a completely instrumental album and recreate the magic of some of the more powerful work here in 'RXG,' I am sure this talented artist could have his first potential masterpiece of his career on his hands. Until then, 'RXG-242-11' is no deriviation from the Senmuth formula, but certainly among the stronger releases under his belt at the point of this album's creation.

First of all, it's a pity. Senmuth insists with his industrial noise that permeates the first 6 albums when he has so good things to give us.

I mean that when the volume of the background noises goes down what remains is a very good electronic music. Not properly ambient, as it's very powerful. The opener and the closer "Megiste syntaxis Part 1 and 2" are very unusual for Senmuth and are a very good surprise. I hope that I will find more trakcs of this kind in the next Senmuth's albums. Then, as often happens with prog music, the best tracks are the longer ones. Aton, Timebirth and Enuma Anu Enlil are highlights.

This album demontrates that Senmuth is continuously even if slowly evolving. This is not yet ready for the 4 stars, but this time he's gone very close. Also classic Senmuth's tracks like ZamicelKreators have short electronic interludes that would better serve Senmuth's cause than the industrial noise he has made us used to.

I'm trying to listen to all the Senmuth's albums (they are freely downloadable) and should I suggest one to the newbies this is surely a good starting point.

A hint: The IDv3 of the mp3s are translated from cyrillic so are a bit more readable for non-russians.

RXG-242-11 is one of the heavier albums of our Russian mastermind Senmuth. It has a dystopian sound and is mostly straight forward without forgetting to include weird industrial samples. The album may be less majestic and coherent than some of his other works but the heaviness should please to a larger public here and be of a certain interest.

Most of the songs have an industrial space flow that reminds of bands such as Ministry, Samael or Voivod. The guitars are sharp, the synthesizers are both upbeat and atmospheric and the weird vocals are harsh, robotic and quite addicting for this kind of music.

"Like Nobody Else" is maybe the heaviest song written in the early years by this one man project while the following "Enuma Anu Enlil" has some modern Visual Kei sounds to me and shows the high degree of diversity that can even be found on this record. On the other side, Senmuth still included calmer and introspective moments on his album such as the opener "Megiste Syntaxis I: Path Of Sirius" that is a great atmospheric track but gives you a somewhat wrong impression of what follows shortly afterwards. The circle is though closed when Senmuth decides to finish the record with the relaxing second part "Megiste Syntaxis II: The Heart Of The Milky Way".

In the end, we have one of the most diversified and entertaining records in the whole long discography of Senmuth. It's not his most inspired, complex and intellectual work, though. Personally, it's still great to know that this guy just wants to rock out sometimes and breaks all conceptual boundaries as on this surprising record that should be hailed and praised by the metal and gothic community as well. Anybody that finds the conceptual instrumental records of Senmuth too intellectual, boring and overwhelming might be positively surprised by this release which underlines my opinion that anybody can find an album that he adores in the large discography of this Tchaikovsky of the twenty-first century that doesn't need The Five to excell with his visionary solo works.

Originally released on www.metal-archives.com on August 18th of the year 2011.