Immune System- Weltanschauung

Artist: Immune System
CD Title: Weltanschauung
Label: The Uberrecording Group
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 8-7-06

With the low-fi industrial speed metal of "Nothing Is True" near the beginning of Immune System's new album, it's apparent that Al Jourgenson is an influence on this British act. Apart from a few nods toward the thrash side of things, however, this album owes less to Ministry than Jourgenson's other famous project, the Revolting Cocks. This album's not so much about heaviness as beats and funk, albeit still through a distinctly industrialized lens. "Devil Stomp," for example, throws in some old-school synthesized hand-claps, and "Weapon" has a nice driving crunch of a bass line. "Fist" mixes things up with some piano before going all aggressive, while title track "Weltanschauung" loops a moaning siren over big, lazy breakbeats. Then there are the songs that defy categorization. "Quitter" is a sensual industrial blues song, with female vocals crooning through layers of static while jazzy pianos pound along with the drum machine, and stands out not only from the other tracks on this album, but from nearly everything else the industrial scene has produced. "We Are Elite," on the other hand, is a nod to early EBM like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb, and its nervous synth arpeggios seem thrown in just so Immune System could prove their versatility. "Monkey" and "Cockstride" close things out with a return to the evil funk machinery, all throbbing drum patterns and weird samples, and prove that Immune System's best material is both its most sensual and its most irreverent. With the attitude of Sheep On Drugs, the eclecticism of Pigface, and the groove of the Revolting Cocks, this CD is a breath of fresh air for industrial fans pining for the grittiness of the good old Wax Trax days.

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