Immortality?

It's been a great while since I've had the pleasure of listening to heavy industrial destroy my ears. While the most notable industrial band of its genre (Nine Inch Nails) may have an accessible appeal there are fantastic depths of any genre to explore and despite many people's lack of discipline, including mine on the genre it would feel unjust to just listen to Reznor. Cyanotic's debut Transhuman would leave an imprint large enough to garner praise and even selling out the entire stock by the end of August of 2006. To show their thanks they released Transhuman 2.0, which in many ways than one is superior album then its source. Almost entirely new, Transhuman 2.0 adds remixes, well-known industrial artists such as Front Line Assembly and new tracks. Despite being pigeonholed because of their sound, Cyanotic would be traditional enough to garner industrial fans, while adding new elements of glitch and drum and bass to adding more accessibility for other enthusiasts.

Transhuman 2.0 in many respects breeds tons of malice and liveliness throughout it's journey. The album's brooding and heart-pounding atmosphere is marked in various tracks with conceptual samples, hard hitting vocals, and more importantly the type of industrial feeling that most wish was embodied by more bands. "Resurgance" could be categorized as exactly the sentiment I wish most bands approach their work with. Although "Resurgance" may be driving and sometimes tiresome, it still leaves the listener impressed. As expected some of this material, if not all is not for the faint of heart as it continuously never backs down for a moments notice. The programming and synths done by a collective effort used throughout the album is fantastic; the scarce instrumental tracks "Frequency (Recycled)" and "Altered States of Consciousness" (small sample piece) remain to be the perfect precursor and closer for the original album. While the concept of Transhuman 2.0 remains (the better of the human condition with the use of science and technology), the aspects underneath the lyricism are truly important. Payne seems to embrace the concept of co-existing with improved status, without illness or disease, but the underlying idea seems cold and harsh. This type of dualism mentality Payne exhibits is essentially what makes this Transhuman 2.0 worthy in the first place.

The machine may be running exceptionally well in Transhuman 2.0 because of its dark frame of mind, but the cog is most definitely the concept of transhumanism. While the search for immortality has been a story for quite some time, the entire concept could be either be embraced or remarkably dreadful. Payne basically is torn between the two. While the thoughts of living as an immortal has its benefits: never becoming sick or bedridden, the entire fixation of immortality feels like a sad state of affairs to him. Transhuman 2.0 discusses (in a matter of speaking) the fears of a man who has nothing to panic about and nothing to be worrisome of. While this may seem to be fantastic think of it? Would you grow so callous and dead from your years of livelihood on the inside you would care for nothing or would you eventually become paranoid to the state of insanity as "(Paranoid) Disbelief" would suggest. And although one side of the coin may be terrible in every circumstance, the other is what philosophers and scientists such as Benjamin Franklin and Charles Darwin could believe be plausible. Although these renowned philosophers, scientists, and stories (most notably the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest works of literary merit) aren't exactly what they thought transhumanism would be, they all had one goal of immortality. Despite the overall theme of the album, Transhuman 2.0 discusses in tiny measures an integral part of many people's lives, religion. If you would remain to be an immortal does that not refute the countless questions of God's existence and even without the discovery of immortality in a form of a wondrous potion or even scientific rebuilding it still remains to a void evidence and God himself. Yes, very anti-religious rhetoric, but the question is raised because of the overall concept of this album, which is why its remarkably effective in so many ways.

Grade: B+