Fudge
Dust to Come

Label: Fastball Music
Three similar bands: KMFDM/Marilyn Manson/Nine Inch Nails

Rating: HHHHHHH (3/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm
Tracks
1. Silently
2. Into the whispers
3. The Summoning
4. GODS
5. Mechanical Human
6. I'm a Wolf
7. Death to Man
8. Dust To Come
9. Thousand
10. Reprise
11. Confession
12. For those who live in Fear
13. Dust to Come pt. II
14. Bittersweet Revenge


Band:
Chris Techritz - vocals, keys
Daniel Hauer - bass
Maximilian Amberger - guitar
Sebastian Michaelis - guitar
Jake Curtis - drums


Discography:
Never Stop Firing (EP 2014)


Guests:
Stefano Carparelli - cello on 10
Joe Kolb - narration on 13
Despic - sound effects on 13


Info:
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Maximilian Amberger
Story on 13 by Thomas Edward Savage
Logo by Malorium Designs
Cover photo by Matej Toman
Chtulu - Anton Rosovsky
Illustration concept by Mike Bogdanovic
Coloration- Purwa Gustira
Layout by Andy Grahammer

Released 2020-10-16
Reviewed 2020-10-08

Links:
fudge-official.com
bandcamp
youtube
fastball


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Apparently the band called Fudge are pioneers within the synth metal genre and they do apparently polarise with their provocative show. That sounds very interesting, I like things that pioneer and things that might provoke and it would be pretty great if it actually was pioneering and provoking, but most albums aren’t. Dust to Come is the debut album by this band, they have an EP in the baggage and now this album with 14 tracks, two of them with the name Dust to Come. So, how about it? Is it any good? Or provocative?

This album kind of fits well into the industrial metal genre, not really that much of pioneering sense to it but perhaps there is some of that post-apocalyptic sense that is given on the cover. The story told in Dust to Come Pt. II also gives that sense, and there is some metal as well but it is over ten minutes of spoken word, isn’t that excessive? The production is okay, but not the originality – you would think that pioneering synth metallers should be original, but this one isn’t really original. It is relatively varied with different kinds of songs, but it is also quite long and thanks to a spoken word track towards the end it still feels quite stale.

So, it is not provocative, but is it good? Not really, it is not really bad but it isn’t good either, kind of stale. There are no standout songs, no really good one and perhaps it is significant that the most memorable track is Death to Man, not really a song but a nice little interlude between songs. The very long spoken word track Dust to Come Pt. II is a pretty dreary one and I think the story could be told in a different way, it is not really good for the album with such a long track of just spoken word. But that isn’t the only issue here, the album as a whole is actually quite dull.

I would have liked a more dynamic, more provocative and more dramatic album than this one. I think post-apocalyptic ideas deserve better expressions than this one, sure it isn’t awful or anything, but I think I have written before that not being awful or terrible isn’t really a good merit on which to sell music. I think that there are some ideas here, but the album is one that you don’t really have to bother with.

HHHHHHH