Zan Heimer – Lack Of Empathy [Roue Records]

Music has the ability to place the listener in a real or imaginary geographical position, or to make him/her participate in a specific situation, or to convey a state of mind. Imaginary situations and realities that can be interpreted differently by each user, although normally it is the author himself who tries to infect the listener with his sound design, with previous work induced by the creativity of the artist.

Damage Kontrol is Zan Heimer‘s debut album and a good example of how the artist is not just limited to creating music, but is much more involved with the environment of his work providing it with landscapes, atmospheres and even cinematic aspects, all within the dark and forceful context of industrial techno.

It is precisely Elysium, which is the opening track of this double album, that alludes to this cinematic aspect with an intro worthy of the soundtrack of an epic film in which somber harmonies are interspersed with imposing timpani. Chained To Extinction emerges from the chaos and confusion, hard and abrasive techno of syncopated metrics with a loud beat. Vertigo closes the A-side as Attila and his henchmen did, ending everything that gets in their way, with a disproportionate and marked aggressiveness.

Hell On Earth introduces you first to a story of a mysterious nature, but at the same time it also intersects with several other sensations that can be as distant as well-being and restlessness. Once again, Zan exposes a great ability to literally smash any hint of relaxation with a crushing punch.  Secrecy And Oppression completes the B-side along with Hell On Earth with an energetic and marked track from the first kick, which is the ruling element in this piece. Direct, hard techno with a hesitant atmosphere.

With War Of Rights we already enter the second album, this track stands out for the different perceptions that each listener can acquire and the subsequent disorientation that it can generate, and technically it stands out for the combination of its textures and the mixture of these with the rhythm. Void Of Existence immerses you in a vegetative state in which your mind prepares your body for battle. Constant rhythm with a great progression of the harmonic structures. With The Black Sacrament, Heimer once again shows his more rudimentary and solid charisma with a track that balances the intensity of the percussive part and the acidic elements with the great power provided by the other harmonic clusters.

Lack Of Empathy infiltrates the emotional disorder and soul isolation of the human being, the opacity and the bad vibrations. Perpetual chords with transitory ingredients that emerge and vanish along the panoramic line of the stereo. Nordica is the second cut on the D-side and the last one on this album. Initially, this track is not what it seems, since what happens later is not a mere extension of industrial cadence, since the base itself is enriched with a melodic arpeggio.

Release date: February 24^th, 2020.