Front Line Assembly-AirMech

Artist: Front Line Assembly

CD Title: AirMech

Label: Metropolis

Genre: electronica/ambient, chill

Front Line Assembly is an industrial band from Canada formed in 1986. Front Line Assembly was the best known of the various electronic music projects undertaken by the prolific Vancouver-based duo of Bill Leeb (vocals, synthesizers) and Rhys Fulber (synthesizers, samplers) and Michael Balch (after Leeb left Skinny Puppy). They have worked under many different names making various styles of electronica such as Delerium, Intermix, Noise Unit, R. Deckard, Conjure One,Cyberaktif,Equinox,Fauxliage,Fear Factory,Left Spine Down,Pro>Tech,Synæsthesia,Stiff Valentine,Will..etc.

Front Line Assembly AirMech is not your typical Front Line Assembly fare... If you are a fan of their hard driving industrial sound, you will not find that here. What you will find, is twelve instrumental, ambient, chill out tracks. AirMech is the soundtrack to a video war game called AIR MECH. Thankfully, FLA is writing a proper FLA album now for a release in late 2013 that will take them back to their early years. So, you all have something to look forward to. I personally would love to hear FLA revisit their classic sound like Digital Tension Dementia or one of my favorite albums  Caustic Grip. Again, you will not find any of that here. Here is a detailed explanation of their latest release "Recently, Carbon Games enlisted Front Line Assembly to create an original album for their strategy game AirMech. As a band influenced by true indie spirit, FLA was struck by Carbons focus as an independent game developer. The soundtrack is packaged with exclusive in-game content, including a special FLA edition. One of the pioneering bands in the electronic industrial genre, FLA continues their legacy with this soundtrack of dynamic music, designed to react to conditions during game battle". 

Some of the album sounds like their prior release Improvised Electronic Device. Some of the same elements are here that fans of FLA have come too expect like complex programming, intense atmosphere, and intricate beats. AirMech is not anything that we haven't heard before from FLA. Their 2006 release Artificial Soldier comes to mind. Though I am a huge fan of their Conjure One or Delerium projects, I really couldn't get into AirMech. I think this would be a great record to take a nice candlelit bath with a glass of wine to relax, or some really nice, chill music to sleep to. I'm not saying that this album is bad in any way. If you are fans of electronica, chill out, ambient, or their other projects like Delerium, you might really enjoy AirMech. For me, I prefer my FLA old skool.

Listen to a sample of Front Line Assembly- AirMech

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