Introduction
S4DNESS – Violence
Artist: S4DNESS
Title / Release Page: Violence
Release Date: 2014 Dec 07
Genre: Witch House / Rave
License: CC BY-NC-ND
Media: MP3 / OGG / FLAC
Pricing: Free
Label: MNMN Records
Rating: ★★★★★
There are claims about S4DNESS – Violence that I just don’t buy. For example, in the tags for the release it is marked “experimental”. This is gross mis-use of the term to describe anything that varies just slightly from what is expected in a genre. Again, this is one of the things that I have been annoyed by for years. So, is there anything that makes this release genuinely different from other house or rave music?
S4DNESS – Violence
For those that aren’t familiar with Witch House music, it is a micro-genre characterized by heavy industrial sounds mixed with techniques from “chopped and screwed hip-hop”. Themes within this genre typically based on the occult or horror genres.
So, what makes this genre different? I don’t hear anything that makes it unique. Industrial, House and Techno have been around for several decades. The “chopped and screwed” beats have been around for a long time. The use of occult and / or horror themes has been around longer than any of these genres. Just because someone has decided to put these specific elements together doesn’t make it new, different, or worthy of any specific genre moniker that hasn’t already existed.
More than that, I find that the overall style sounds tired from the start. Heavy synthesizer sounds that have been around for over a decade and are easily identifiable as being from the time period of groups like Future Sound of London seems more like living in the past than moving forward into a new domain or style.
To make matters worse, recordings like Violence center their tracks on many of the worst musical clichés from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Just the idea that there might really be an audience for this type of music is somewhat depressing in worst ways than most Goths or Emo’s claim to be depressed.
All I can think is: if you are a rave going Goth or Emo that is into this kind of music, it’s time to move on. It’s obvious that the whole scene is dead. The things that once made the scene unique and interesting have had dozens of spike driven through it’s heart. It’s now just a wandering Zombie, with less intelligence or ability to express itself.
Conclusion
Just honestly skip this stuff. It’s not worth the energy that it takes to listen to it. It’s more painful to listen to than a Herb Alpert recording, and even less satisfying.
