The Praxis 8 models were the most advanced of their kind. They had enhanced cerebral and combat skills, expanded knowledge capabilities, and a capacity to develop as emotional beings [] Four of the Praxis 8 models took matters into their own hands and formed a breakaway faction. They rebelled against their owners. They refused to obey. They absconded, taking refuge in the shadowed nooks of the urban sprawl…
Country (for what it’s worth): U.S.A.
Members: Kristof Bathory
Text: Alistair Rennie
Production & mix: Kristof Bathory
Mastering: Simon Heath
Availability: digipack-CD with 16-page booklet
Artwork: Simon Heath
Duration: 56:55
Genre: Cinematic Dark Post-Industrial Sci-Fi Doom Drone Ambient Electronics
Introduction: Kristof Bathory is known as one of the main / founding members behind Industro-Metal act Dawn Of Ashes, and also active in projects like Void Stasis or Bornless Fire (which is active again, apparently?). And he’s part as well of the Cryo Chamber Collaboration family, by the way. As Kristof Bathory, if I am not mistaken, he once created an album called Hex Ov Bathory, yet that has been more than a decade. Anyway, with Humanoid Dystopia, he makes his debut under this specific moniker for (his brother’s?) Cryo Chamber…
Content: you can expect almost one hour of ultimately obscure, heavy-weighted ambience. It’s an overwhelming symbiosis of abyssal-obscure drones, sci-fi-oriented synths, astral sequences, cyber-styled textures, mesmerizing gothic-like harmonies, haunted atmospheres, ceremonial rhythms, post-industrial mechanics, militant beats, and bleak, doomed pulsations. Humanoid Dystopia exhales a monumental variety in structure and within its whole essence. The whole album permanently evolves, grows, develops, with a nice balance in between robust and vigorous dronework, a gloomy and remote ethos, and spectral melodies with a sometimes dramatic emotion. Each listen reveals aspects you didn’t seem to experience before, yet still it sounds so trusted, so reliable, so solid. This immense, full-bodied and multi-layered musical journey comes with a vibe of mystic and futuristic fantasy, resulting in a magisterial soundtrack that could easily be the aural accompaniment for post-apocalyptic and/or sci-fi-related cinema.
Conclusion: Humanoid Dystopia is adventurous and complex, and at the very same time, it’s conversant and organic too. The concept (a story about a group of androids imprisoned / hiding / exiled on a remote planet) and the explicit yet intriguing artwork go excellently well with this dynamic and integer soundscore. Majestic!
https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/humanoid-dystopia