The Ultimate Review of Distorted Delusions

If you've listened to Fear of Domination's other two full-lengths, you'll have a fair idea what to expect from this record (and if you haven't I'd recommend you do so immediately). They don't really add anything else to the mix they've been using up until this point, but when it's as good a quality as it is I suppose it doesn't really matter. There are a couple of subtle differences though, which I feel are worth a mention.

The first and biggest one is the departure of Niina Telén. She was a real driving force for the band with the synth-based leads that form most of the songs, and while the style clearly wasn't going to change I was put off a bit by this change. Her replacement, Lasse Raelahti, does provide a solid performance, but he doesn't ever give anything that I feel was a match for what Niina did. Probably not entirely his fault, but nonetheless something that detracts. The female backing vocals are also gone, which is a shame as they really added depth to a lot of songs.

Secondly, there seem to more weird effects than there was previously. Like at the start of Violence Disciple, I don't think we'd ever heard the random gaps in Saku's voice before the release of Distorted Delusions. Maybe it's more appealing to some others, but I find bits like that slightly off-putting.

Other than those things though, it's business as usual: guitars are solid if not overly spectacular, the keyboard still drives the music even with a different person in command of it, the bass is still practically non-existent and the drumming is still strong but somewhat hidden behind the keyboards and the guitars. The vocals come in two forms, distorted snarls and surprisingly good cleans.

The best track on the album is probably Legion. I don't know what it is about that song, but like the song Pandemonium from their previous album it just sounds so intense and engaging. The melodies created both on the guitars and keyboard are excellent, and the way the song reaches a climax at the end that lasts for over a minute is excellent. That song is what I expected from the rest of this album, and while there are a few gems (such as II and Needle), nothing else really stands out. Nothing is spectacularly bad (although Organ Grinder is stranger than I like my music to be), but equally the album doesn't have that many great moments. Compared to their previous two albums, everything's slightly less interesting and the same thing is done too many times. Solid? Yes. Spectacular? No.

Overall it's still a good album, but not as good as either of the albums before it. By this point they've started to sound a little bit samey, and I think for their next release they might have to do something different. Either that or step it up a gear from Create.Control.Exterminate., which doesn't seem liable to happen. I'm hoping that every song is at least the same quality as Legion or Needle on the next record.
Final Score: 15 / 100