FALSE ICONS

Answering one of the great burning questions on the metal world's mind — where did keyboardist and programmer John Bechdel go after being in PRONG in the 1990's? — we're graced with the debut of his FALSE ICONS project. That's not entirely fair, of course; the man has done time in MINISTRY and Burton Bell's ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS, and is by all accounts a great guy. But after listening to "God Complex", you have to wonder if he actually put this retro electro tin-can synth-o-rama to tape in 1994 and then lost the masters until this year's spring cleaning.

Anyone old enough to remember the Re-constriction or Energy record labels will have an idea of what's going on here. "God Complex" is all heavily-treated vocals and guitars married to electronic beats, with songs veering from dirge-y and metallic ("The Wheel", which either has Al Jourgensen on guest vocals or borrows his rack of vocal effects) to smooth and radio-friendly ("Mystified", "Lead the Way") to very nearly dance-floor compatible ("Transform").

The vocals are pretty anemic, sure, but it almost doesn't matter when there's this much computer processing going on. More troublesome is the overall blandness of the production, especially the drum and guitar sounds — the dated synths and GOD LIVES UNDERWATER vibe can be overlooked, and even enjoyed as a blast from our digital past, but it's hard to get over the overall flat and dull sound. There's just no excuse for it, given Bechdel's pedigree and access to good gear. You could probably make better-sounding, more balanced tracks with public domain music software on the computer you're sitting in front of right now.

Even setting that serious flaw aside, FALSE ICONS is hard to recommend. "God Complex" fails on atmosphere, and the songs don't jump out at you either — while nothing here flat-out sucks, you'd be hard pressed to remember anything outside of a generalized Mortal Kombat malaise when the record ends. There's a ton of this movie-sample-laden, techno-fied industrial metal in the cheap bin of every used CD store, so it's hard to get too excited when more of it is inexplicably released, regardless of who's behind it. A cheap, tinny nostalgia trip that could have been so much better.