LAW "Vindication and Contempt"
Triumvirate | CD

Established out of a need to manifest their disapproval of the modern times and pessimistic vision of future, American group Law (now defunct) have written down a fine card in the history of local dark ambient scene. 'Vindication and Contempt' is s a special album due to it being the very first release of Triumvirate label - run by Mitchell Altum, the founder and the main man behind Law. In some respects this record corresponds well with the current neo folk/martial post-industry scenes that contest our modern world. The traces lead to the cover art whereon pictures of beautiful landscapes and purity of an ancient sculpture are faced with one sad note: "we live in a nation where the majority of the population define themselves and demonstrate their principles by their favorite stock car racer, Looney Tunes character, and sub-fad of clothing they wear". That radical attitude was well travestied into the music language as a form of dark ambient, death industrial and power electronics mixture. The album is soaked with emotional passions expressed by many violent twists - from drum machine thrashings to narrative vocal parts with dark ambient backgrounds, from noise storms to violin and acoustic guitar samples. Mitchell skillfully arranges the tracks giving an orchestral touch to them, which, matched with a perfect sound production, resulted in an effective over one-hour-long work. Although this stage of his career is over, Mitchell has announced another musical projects to realize. Hopefully, they'll be as good as Law.

[krzysztof sadza]