Precision watches, banks, secret vaults, snowy mountaintops, chocolates, cheese with holes, expensive, cleanliness, papal guards... These are some of the words that come to my mind when I hear the word "Switzerland". The furthest thing from my mind is Rock. But there really are rockers in Switzerland and Young Gods are the cream of the crop. Deriving inspiration from the likes of noise rockers The Swans, they play experimental industrial/new wave/metal music. 1992's "T.V.Sky" was their 4th and most accessible album - they even sing in English! The album opens with psychedelic "Our House", employing sonic loops, metallic riffs and Jim Morrison-esque vocals. Very interesting, but it gets even better: Song after song offer relentless drumming and razor-sharp riffs that Rammstein would kill for! "Gasoline Man" is a mutant ZZ Top-like boogie and "Skinflowers" gothic metal à la Fields Of The Nephilim. The song "T.V. Sky" is the meeting point of Bauhaus, Ministry and Einstürzende Neubauten. I wonder if they borrowed the title T.V. Sky from William Gibson's Neuromancer: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" - one of my favorite opening lines in a book, ever. It would fit an album like this one. "Dame Chance" and "The Night Dance" are punkier affairs and "She Rains" slow psychedelia. The CD closes with "Summer Eyes", a long Doors-inspired number centered on Franz Treichler's nightmarish view of America. An album that deserves to be heard and even revered! Especially by fans of Rammstein, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson et al.
**** for Gasoline Man, T. V. Sky, Skinflowers, Dame Chance
*** for Our House, The Night Dance, She Rains, Summer Eyes
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