Pitchshifter - www.Pitchshifter.com

Label: Geffen
Catologue Number: GED25163
Format: CD
Date: 1998
Style: Industrial Metal / Punk / Drum & Bass
Rating: 7/10
Reviewer: Sidney James

www.pitchshifter.com saw Pitchshifter once more undergo a metamorphosis in style. The chameleon abilities of the band may have always been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. From the grindcore sounds of Industrial and Submit via the post Ministry aggro rock of Desentized and Infotainment? Pitchshifter have never stayed stationary in their musical approach. With www.pitchshifter.com they moved in a direction more influenced by Drum and Bass and Punk, which another reviewer aptly named “Punk and Bass”.

This approach led to Pitchshifter creating a monster of an album, closer to the breakbeat guitar meltdown of Atari Teenage Riot than to the previous Industrial metal sound that they had been associated with. The guitars maintain the heavy grinding sound that is almost trademark Pitchshifter, but it what is going on beneath this where the real change has happened. Pitchshifter have always been interested in the rhythm of music, with JS Clayden saying that he was always more influenced by Public Enemy than bands such as Biohazard. On www.pitchshifter.com the beats are more in line with drum and bass and the prodigy, with programmed bass and beats speeding and twisting around the guitars. This is used to great effect on tracks like Microwaved and Please Sir.

The other instantly notable and welcome change on www.pitchshifter.com is JS Clayden’s vocals once they lurked in the realms of the death metal grunt. Now they have been replaced with a punky snarl, which fits comfortably with the change in musical approach. If anything they are actually make it easier to understand the diatribes and political polemic that Pitchshifter deal in.

Even though with www.pitchshifter.com, the band had signed to a major label, there is no end to their rage and fury against the injustices of modern capitalist society. A brave move in a climate where politics and music are both dominated by style over substance. Some people will argue that there is no place for politics in music, but we need bands like Pitchshifter not only for their musical explosions but also their uncompromising stance in a world where apathy has become a marketed lifestyle accessory.