### Atari Teenage Riot: Burn, Berlin, burn!

#### 04/10/10 || Daemonomania

Q: Whaddya get when you mix speed metal and punk guitars, off-key yelping, skittering electronics, and a steaming pile of fuck the system?

A: A bunch of children between the ages of 13 and 19 causing a violent public disturbance due to an early video game platform!

Or something like that. Anyway, for those who enjoy the many offshoots of industrial music and want their hearing damaged, Atari Teenage Riot’s 1997 compilation of demos is waiting for you in a seedy German motel. Back when I was a frequent listener of NIN, these dudes seemed like the coolest revolutionary dawgs on the block. These days when a track comes jolting out of the shufflemist it most likely will get skipped. Unless I am feeling masochistic.

We often talk about brutal music in the world of metal, but sometimes brutality is not defined by blasts and growls. Sometimes brutality can come from chaos – in this particular case the sense of disorientation stems from half-rapped male and female Crass-style vocals, random interjections of possibly sampled metal riffs and definitely sampled anime dialogue, and completely batshit jungle breaks. Alec Empire, band founder and hater of neo-Nazi bunker dwelling electronica goons, calls it “digital hardcore”. Maybe some other bands have adopted this style and are making similar music to this day, but I’ll be god-double-damnified if I’m gonna find out.

Not that there isn’t some quality to be mined from “BBB” (KingKingKing). “Sick to death” and “Speed” have very catchy choruses, the off-kilter blitz of “Future of war” is rad, and “Into the death” is pretty dang metal indeed. My favorite track would have to be “Death star”; think the unholy matrimony of Ministry and Portishead and you’re getting close to the menace this track conveys.

So if you’ve got a vendetta against your own sanity and eardrums give ATR a listen. But don’t say I didn’t warn you when your first headache manifests.

- Information
- Released: 1997
- Label: Grand Royal
- Website: ATR MySpace
- Band
- Alec Empire: vocals, guitar, technoing
- Hanin Elias: vocals, technoing
- Carl Crack: technoing

- Tracklist
- 01. Start the Riot
- 02. Fuck All!
- 03. Sick to Death
- 04. P.R.E.S.S.
- 05. Deutschland (Has Gotta Die!)
- 06. Destroy 2000 Years of Culture
- 07. Not Your Business
- 08. Heatwave
- 09. Atari Teenage Riot
- 10. Delete Yourself
- 11. Into the Death
- 12. Death Star
- 13. Speed
- 14. The Future of War