Culture

(5/5)

Salvaged from the cutting-room floor, this collection of previously unfinished songs continues in a similar vein to Numan’s 2006’s anthemic opus Jagged, and thanks to collaborator/programmer extraordinaire Ade Fenton, Gary’s atheistic industrial sound he established circa 1994 is embellished with more dark, dirty synth than ever before.
 
Things kick off in true Numan style with opener “Resurrection”, a stuttering, slow-burning instrumental full of electronic blips, static and deep human breathing. This storm of futuristic noise swells and whirrs shapelessly until the arrival of evenly spaced, shit-your-pants-heavy pillars of distorted synth, which slam into the mix with all the scale, urgency and force that Trent Reznor could ever conjure. A wordless female vocal, synthetic and faintly Eastern in sound, begins to cast broad golden strokes on the horizon, recalling Mezzanine-era Massive Attack and escorting this song to a more-than-satisfying finale. Although not that representative of the album musically, this intro is undoubtedly a highlight.
 
Its final computerized splutters fade directly into successor “Big Noise Transmission”, the perfect electro-industrial ying to “Resurrection”'s brooding yang. Originally titled Captured Underground Noise Transmission (but altered last-minute to avoid an unfortunate acronym), its muddy, bombastic beats, harsh whispers, yelping Numan chorus and scorching KMFDM-style riffs appear throughout the rest of the album considerably, showcasing the sizzling, streamlined sound Gary is currently going for.
 
Dead Son Rising largely takes place in the same damp, concrete, barely-lit underground complex that Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy once occupied, but it does wander off to some other exotic sonic locations. Album zenith and title track (almost) “Dead Sun Rising” sees Gary standing amidst the burning remains of a building, surrounded by effervescent synth muck and crooning over a perfect, pounding trip-hop beat. His voice and lyrics are mesmerizing, and despite there being no real chorus (merely verse after haunting verse), this might just be the best thing he’s ever done. Furthermore, “We Are The Lost” is a dissonant Arabian nightmare, an oasis at midnight infested with vicious snares and humming fridge-like ambience. And yes, Gary continues to stress his religious orientation throughout, with lyrics like “I’ve seen gods bleeding” and a song entitled “When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come” (unless that track is autobiographical, who knows?).
 
Due to the circumstances in which Dead Son was born, there is a slight air of incoherency as it hovers along, but like Radiohead's Amnesiac (which had a similar conception), it is much tighter than it should be. There is not a weak moment on here, but I’d have to conclude that the eerier, subtler tracks like the lamenting “Dead Sun Rising”, the ghostly piano ballad “Not The Love We Dream Of” and the subterranean verses of “When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come” get under my skin more than the chugging industrial rock of “Big Noise Transmission” or lead single “The Fall”. Still, those tracks are certainly solid, especially in the case of “The Fall”, with its swelling fuzzy guitar intro, addictive chorus and sadomasochistic, percussive smacks in shameless NIN-style.
 
All in all, Gary Numan has struck gold with Dead Son Rising. His darker sound has finally been perfected, and despite now looking like Adam Lambert’s granddad, he is truly in top form. Check out this album with haste, and keep an eye out for his 21st(!) full-length next year, Splinter. I really can’t wait.