Although I’m more into the melodic side of metal, the chance to review one of Belgium’s greatest metal bands, could not be passed. With an open mind, I put the album in my player. And…at the first spin I thought : it’s not bad, it’s even good for a Belgian, or for that matter any other band, but it’s nothing special either.
But after a few spins the album grew on me, and a few spins later I was completely addicted to it. And to say that it hung in the balance that this album would ever be released, since just when the recordings had started the band lost their drummer Phil Baheux. A few months went by, and finally the decision was made to complete the album, which was done with the aid of Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour, ex Soulfly) on drums.
The album opens with an aggressive sounding song ‘Dark Passenger’ that sounds like…Channel Zero. The next song ‘Electric Cocaine’ has a creepy athmosphere over it, and is followed by ‘Burn The Nation', which again is an aggressive sounding song, with a chorus that screams to be sung along with on festivals. When ‘Digital Warfare’ starts, you might think you’re going to listen to an Ayreon song, but this impression rapidly vanishes. ‘Ego’ is a much slower songs, or parts of it are, but it left a lasting impression on me. ‘Kill All Kings’ is a apparently a song where they let the Illuminati have it. ‘Brother’Keeper’ is a song that again gave me the creeps, and deals about the death of Phil, is almost seems as if Franky instead of singing would start crying. Very gripping song this is. ‘Army Of Bugs’ to me is one of the minor songs on this album, but is still good. Then along comes ‘Mind Over Mechanics’, followed by ‘Duisternis’ a.k.a. Channel Zero does ‘t Hof Van Commerce’ on speed, a song that is partly sung in Flemish, partly in French and parly in English. Last song on the album is ‘Heart Stop’, which actually is another version of ‘Angel’ and again is a song that grips you by the throat.
My opinion : this is probably the best Channel Zero album so far.