:: Genitorturers - Blackheart Revolution

Genitorturers

If it weren’t for their consistent touring throughout the years, and the release of a couple of live DVD’s, you could be forgiven for believing that Florida based industrial rock outfit Genitorturers had all but packed it in. But lo and behold, the long running (and somewhat infamous) act have returned with their third full-length effort ‘Blackheart Revolution’, the long overdue follow-up to their 2002 EP ‘Flesh Is The Law’, and their first full album of new material since 1998’s ‘Sin City’. Times and tastes have changed dramatically since the band last released new material, and as a result, Genitorturers have modified their sound to suit. Casting aside their former metallic/industrialised influences, on ‘Blackheart Revolution’, the band reveals a far slicker and more accessible sound, which works more often than not. The Rob Zombie influenced opening track ‘Revolution’ is a rather heavy and dark slab of industrialised rock that kick-starts the album in the right direction, with Gen providing just the right amount of aggression and melody in the vocal department to counterbalance the sharpened guitar tones and gang-styled backing vocals. Both ‘Devil In A Bottle’ and Alice Cooper influenced ‘Take It’ follow a similar direction to the opener with Gen putting in fairly convincing Zombie-like growls throughout, while ‘Louder’, ‘Tell Me’ and ‘Kabangin’ All Night’ drift more towards the hard rock side of things.

The album manages to cover quite a bit of ground, with ‘Falling Stars’ and ‘Vampire Lover’ drifting more into the gothic rock realm, while the dance floor thumping groove of ‘Cum Junkie’ is more in the direction of Gen’s electro/remix side project Gen-XX. While all are solid enough tracks, they don’t quite meld with the heavier sounds on the rest of the album, and tend to get lost amongst the stronger songs on the album. The real stand out on the album is ‘Confessions Of A Blackheart’. This dark and sinister effort is as close as the group get to a really sinister and menacing sound, with Gen’s twisted performance giving the song a unique stamp over anything else on offer here. Genitorturers have certainly moved on from their early sound to incorporate a bit of everything on ‘Blackheart Revolution’. And while not everything here is an absolute winner, there’s more than enough to keep fans interested and coming back for more when they hit the tour trail in support.