Cyanotic- Transhuman 2.0

ARTIST: Cyanotic

ALBUM: Transhuman 2.0

LABEL: Bit Riot Records

REVIEWER: Matthew Johnson

DATE: 9-5-07

Get ready for more blistering industrial guitars, floor-shaking bass lines, and frantically funky drum programming than you can shake a stick at; Cyanotic are back with a deluxe double-disc version of their first full-length. This stuff is all on the hard side of the coldwave spectrum, less punk than metal, less the cynical sneer of Chemlab than the brutal bellow of Acumen Nation, with whom Cyanotic currently shares a U.S. tour as well as a fondness for hard breakbeats and crunchy guitars. While lead vocalist Sean Payne keeps things more or less tied together with distorted growls, Cyanotic explore a number of genres on their debut. "Order Out of Chaos" is jungle on amphetamines, "Antithesis" is driving thrash metal backed by pummeling industrial beats, and "Axiom" progresses from a slow wail to an epic, siren-laced wash of doom metal guitars. Perhaps the band's best track, though, is the comparatively straightforward "Sensory Deprivation." It doesn't pull together quite so many genres, true, but it's got more than enough crowd-pleasing, fist-pumping fury to make up for it. But the real reason to pick this up is the second disc; clocking in at over 70 minutes, it's longer than the original and even more varied. The highlights again come from "Sensory Deprivation." Cyanotic themselves give it a trance meets metal take on "Sensory Overload," while Bit Riot Records label-mates MindFluxFuneral offer up a flattened, hardened remix version with subtle power noise influences. You've never heard so many different kinds of heavy crammed into one album; hear it now, and brace yourself for the live show.

Visit Cyanotic at www.cyanotic-online.com.