dreDDup-Nautilus

Artist: dreDDup

CD Title: Nautilus

Label: Glory & Honour

Genre: Industrial, death rock, metal

dreDDup is an industrial rock ,crossover band from the town of Novi Sad, Serbia. In 1997, they bore the child that would eventually grow into the rock monster you hear today. With an impressive career of seven albums (4 "official") not including live or demo albums, dreDDup has built quite the name for themselves Internationally.  In 2011, dreDDup's sixth or third (depending on how you judge a bands musical history) self titled album dreDDup was named  "One of the new 10 best industrial rock albums for 2011" by several critics.

If you were to mix Cat Rapes Dog with My Life With The Thrill kill Kult, you would get the basic feel for the infamous Serbian band dreDDup. Strangely, the Swedish band Pain kept popping into my head when I was listening to my first taste of dreDDup, particularly Pain's 1999 "Rebirth" album which was huge when I was living in Sweden in 1999. Though dreDDup is not nearly as good or as well produced as Pain, I can see some of the similarities, not really in the new dreDDup album "Nautilus", but on their previous self-titled album dreDDup. My question is what happened? Aren't bands supposed to get better with age? or is that only for wine? Well in that case, then I think it is back into the wine cellar for these Serbian boys. I think they need a bit more aging.  It always mystifies me how a band can mature on one album and then take an immature five steps backwards on the next, which is exactly what dreDDup did on their new album "Nautilus" . So who do you blame? The writers? The musicians? The producer? The dog?...I say," to the whipping post with you all", except of course for the dog, unless he is to blame and then, well, that would be quite a horse of a different color now wouldn't it? The bottom line, is that if a band is going to evolve, then they cannot go backwards. The production value alone went from above par on the previous dreDDup album, to sub zero on this album "Nautilus". So what's different? They have gone back to their "industrial" roots for a more electronic, less polished sound. Hiding behind percolating synths and big beats won't take focus away from the fact that dreDDup is having some serious evolution issues. Everything from the immature writing style to of course the production, "Nautilus" is simply an embarrassment.

If I produced a great album like their previous album "dreDDup", then I released something amateurish like "Nautilus", then I might expect my fans to form a lynching mob waiting outside the studio to take me down. Trust me, I would deserve it! dreDDup needs to realise that fans and critics are not stupid, they can see the forest through the trees. They know quality against a mediocre offering like this. I know in these hard times, that good, high quality production can be very pricey, so if you can't afford to have some super slick production, you better work your collective asses off in order to make a killer album that will stand out. Fans and critics will be more forgiving if you are honest. This album sounds like they threw it together quickly, and expected the "techno reboot" to disguise their lack of effort. Sorry guys, but it is painfully clear that you have lost your mojo in the process of only a year. For those of you who want to formulate your own opinion (which you should want to do) let's delve a bit deeper into their new album "Nautilus" shall we?.

If you look at one of the basic definitions of Nautilus "cephalopod mollusk of warm seas whose females have delicate papery spiral shells" it is basically a squid like creature with a delicate, papery shell. I think that ironically Nautilus is a perfect title for an album so weak and frail sounding. I feel a sense of sympathy for these poor dreDDup creatures who have realised their weakness with this "dreadful" album and have retreated into their "delicate, papery" shells. Look boys, the beauty about art is that once you release it to the public, and it becomes a product, it is fair game and subject to dissection, judgement and scrutiny. dreDDup might have a completely different explanation for naming their seventh ( dreDDup will say 4th) release "Nautilus". For those of you who are only just now discovering that this band even exists,has been successfully making music since 1997 and hasn't heard their aforementioned 2011 self titled release dreDDup, it's time to deflower you dreDDup style.

dreDDup like many dark acts, definitely has a penchant for the dramatic. Big, dark, Gothic synth pads and angelic choirs dominate the atmosphere of most of the album. Most of the lyrics sounds like bad and irritating poetry, especially with his Cat Rapes Dog growl and heavy accent. One thing is clear that dreDDup sure loves to fuck, with lyrics like "fuck away the pain" and the laughable, "I'll fuck you to pieces". They decided to add a femme touch to this release, which once again brings up the aptly titled album name "Nautilus" and reminds one of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. I might even go as far to say that with the absence of a super producer like Flood, that "Nautilus" sounds like a poor man's interpretation of Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine". Nautilus sounds like no one won in the quarter toss of which direction the band should go in. Should it be industrial, death rock, metal, punk,spoken word? Well as the old saying goes "too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth".  It just sounds like a bunch of guys with eclectic tastes got together and started jamming but each playing whatever the hell they wanted. It lacks the structure, organization and most importantly, the fluidity of their previous album. It is not at all like the finely tuned and expertly polished sound of their previous album either. So once again I ask what the hell happened? How does a band make a really good album and then one year later, sound like they got creative amnesia? One thing that I found particularly interesting, that is not typical for a band of this nature, is that several of the tracks are instrumentals. This is not necessarily a bad or a good thing, it is just a curious thing that I wanted to note.  I sincerely hope that dreDDup will think twice before trying to quickly throw another album together again like they did with "Nautilus".

Fans of Cat Rapes Dog, Nine Inch Nails and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult might enjoy dreDDup's rather eclectic sound, but for me, I have a very special place in mind to put dreDDup's latest release "Nautilus"..the trash can!

Check out a track from dreDDup latest release "Nautilus" Train to Madness (Featuring Hype's Gaga Lee)