Taina – Seelenfresser (Industrial Metal Still Tries Lol)
I should have known before I started. Taina, I’m sorry, Seelenfresser was set to sprint, but it tripped immediately, shaken by the poof of the starting pistol. The 1990s are gone, friends, though we still worship them when we forget. What we tend to forget is the parts we actually aren’t nostalgic for at all. Here’s a part of one of those parts. Remember industrial? Didn’t you just love all those anti-Christian, political samples? Do you miss that man-as-machine with tubes for hair aesthetic? Do you miss feeling like you don’t belong at a show when you realize how bad it all is? That’s right, we’re talking about industrial metal you who forget. Never forget, your nostalgia is tainted. Industrial metal is just one blackened, bulbous, mildew stain of the taint. The genre had its week. Once it got more tongue-in-cheek it was easier to accept, but yet there was that vein that continued to pump the blood-as-oil for the ones who consumed. It grew around the muscle, avoiding the venous pathways that made logical sense, forming a new heart within an enclosed, metallic space where its scant number of adherents still consider it legitimate and perpetuate its sound whilst gyrating to pulsating drum machine and strobes. If you thoroughly enjoy NSFW video singles from a band from Germany trying to claim a mantle long burned as the flag it was, Taina’s got you.
It’s surprising this type of music still works for somebody, but here it is, Seelenfresser. Taina are interesting in that this is actually their only full-length, though they’ve been around for almost a decade. They’ve been promoting largely the same songs for six or more years and promoting this very album for a whopping two years minimum before even releasing the damn thing. That takes highly-anticipated to the level of come on already. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band put this much time into promoting themselves before they really have anything to promote. Congratulations. Musically, it’s exactly what you expect. As I said above, this genre has no reason to adapt whatsoever. Its demographic has largely remained unchanged with the same mechanical, biotech aesthetic, the same keyboard sweeps, the same beats, and largely the same riffs. It’s so static at this point if there was a Mortal Kombat film revival it would not work for the soundtrack. And hey, even better, it was released by a label with 0 cred whatsoever, which is likely owned by the band because are there labels even releasing this stuff outside of imploding a business? Unlike death metal, which certainly has its fair share of redundancy, industrial metal rarely makes an attempt to differ itself, because it doesn’t have to. Its fans will accept it with no hesitation, cross-kicking and hacking their way to Goth night epiphany. If you’re like us, though, you’re left lamenting, yet again, the taint of the human race. I avoided figuring out the cover artist of this one, because I’ll save them the embarrassing tag.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Taina – Seelenfresser
Viy Records
2.9 / 5
