Outlaw Industrial Rockers CHMCL STR8JCKT return with their first new album since 2021’s Drk Prgrssn, and with it, a portal into a whole new dimension of the band’s traditional intrigue – a wild acceleration, says frontman/vocalist Kevin Snell, of “our love of hard rock and industrial music with a touch of Western flavor.”
“IV-Rx continues our evolution of Outlaw Industrial Rock. It’s heavier and darker, yet melodic, inspired by bands like Killing Joke and Ministry” – and that’s no surprise.
Joining Snell and bandmate Mike C, guitarist/keyboard whizz John Bechdel – both a current member of Ministry, and a former Killing Joke-r – steps out from behind the production desk (he oversaw Chmcl Str8jckt’s last two albums, 2019’s Wrtchd Thngs and 2021’s Drk Prgrssn) to add his own sonic sorceries to the maelstrom.
And the album gets off to a startling start as well, previewed today by the band’s nightmare-lashed new video, “Anaesthesia.”
“It’s both the first single and the album opener because it sets the tone for what is to come,” affirms Snell. “It’s dark and heavy with a chunky metal guitar riff and a Gary Numan inspired synth line. It has the feel of an anthem!” In fact, the entire album is stuffed full with pulsing synthesizers, coruscating riffery, the darkest themes and the mightiest of crowd-crunching hooks.
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/chmclstr8jkt_anaesthesia
Formed in 2017 by newly re-united childhood friends C and Snell, Chmcl Str8jckt started life as a tribute to the legendary Wax Trax sound they so loved during their teen years of the late 80’s/early 90’s – fused, among other things, with the very young Snell’s love of Black Sabbath.
“When I was eight or so, I heard ‘Electric Funeral’ for the first time. It changed my life! I was scared…..excited….and completely hooked. If we could have that effect…even just a little on someone… our mission is accomplished.”
Releasing their self-titled debut album within months of forming, Chmcl Str8Jckt quickly caught John Bechdel’s ear and, under his guidance, the duo moved swiftly from emulating bands like RevCo and KMFDM on their debut, to truly developing the sound of Outlaw Industrial Rock – old school industrial meets the new wave of technology to create a whole new, and supremely sinister primal scream. Or, as Snell puts it, “the post-apocalyptic cowboy.”
“I love westerns. I read a lot about Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and such.” He singles out Wrtchd Thngs’ “Ode To Peckinpah” as a musical starting point for the fusion, “a tribute to the quite mad western film maker! Mike added a great western guitar riff to my keyboards and it just sets the mood perfectly.”
It’s a contagious vibe, too. “Even our tracks that are completely not western sounding have an apocalyptic vibe to them.”
Picture, he says, “a badass in a duster walking down a bombed out city street.”
IV-Rx is Chmcl Str8jckt’s third Cleopatra release, the latest highlight in a relationship that confirms both the band’s status in the modern industrial firmament, and Cleopatra’s long, long-standing role at the forefront of the original industrial revolution – the label has championed the genre almost since its inception in the early 1990s, and overseen many of its most influential convolutions.
Outlaw Industrial Rock, however, is one of the most thrilling of them all. So take the anaesthesia now… and the IV-Rx won’t be too far away.
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/chmclstr8jckt_ivrx
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 