review :: Royce Icon
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Crimson Ivy are an Industrial/ Coldwave project originally formed in the late eighties in California. They broke up in 1993, but have recently re-grouped. "Bloodlife" was their last record released back in 93, and while they're preparing for a new album to come out soon, they asked me to review this one, so I am.
"Bloodlife" consists of 8 songs of an interesting coldwave/ goth/ industrial metal vein, coming from a pretty original direction for the genre. The beats on some of tracks have a very nice jagged edge to them, almost break beat in nature, with very modern sounding synth work for the time period. It sounds like a live drummer was used at points, though I'm not sure. The guitar for the most part is straight forward metal, but is pretty much in the back of the mix, which is for the better, as the electronic elements are definitely the more stand out elements here.
The vocals are also rather interesting, sounding at times like a mixture of Peter Murphy and a more sedated David Yow. They just have that wild emphasis that is rather dramatic, but perfectly fitting. Aesthetically, this brings to mind a lot of the Wax Trax! bands in the 90s, especially the Al Jourgensen side projects, but with less focus on groove and precision. The Crimson dudes have more of a live band sound for some reason, which is hard to describe. Killing Joke is brought to mind, they way that they sounded like a live band and not a dude in a studio... Either way, it's pretty cool.
Final Prognosis: "Bloodlife" is 8 tracks of rather solid Coldwave/ Industrial/ Goth stuff that is definitely as relevant now as it was 16 years ago. Worth a listen for sure, and since they have the majority of the album available for free download, you really don't have an excuse not to check it out, do you? Recommended for sure.
