Showcasing some of the leading names in the so-called Torture Tech area of Industrial Rock, this album tends to underline the styles strengths rather than weaknesses. PRIMAL ENGINE's opener is a prime example of this, combining tribal rhythms with a hard spine of bright Cyber Rock in a very distinctive and hooky track which seems to capture all that's good about SLEEP CHAMBER, pep it up tempo-wise, and add enough spice to make it a classic. RECLINER's track is less immediate, but manages to avoid all the worst clichés, making a tight little number. HATE DEPT show their Rock roots in what is a colourful neon medium-fast number. COLLA DESTRA encapsulate the Rap corner of Torture Tech - a tight piece with a BEASTIE BOYS in - yer - face approach - energetic and danceable. Next up is by KILLING FLOOR (see album review elsewhere) which is a strong track but sounds somehow muted here among the bright lights. CONTAGION create a steady medium pace of moodiness with half-hidden samples and whispered vocals. ACUMEN click the bpm up several notches with a (intentially? who knows) humourous piece which is lightweight and skittery, but designed to make you dance. DEATH METHOD are much brighter and in - yer - face with some interesting changes going on in their intelligent and progressive rhythm. The tinny pub piano suggests they have a sense of humour, but the mainframe of the track has barracuda determination of purpose. PENAL COLONY could almost break into a mainstream audience except for their insistance on overdriving their sound into distortion. SYNTHESIA MURDER PROGRAM take us through a collection of loops and samples into an angry caliope playing in the Carnival Of Cuts And Bruises. SLAVE UNIT utilise a Thrash - tempo backing, simplistic and cyber-metallic while a spartan arrangement of samples and dalek vocals transform this into a good solid piece of fast music - perhaps not beefy enough to be danceable, but certainly mosh-fodder. PAIN EMISSION take the tempo right down to a NIN slow number style, although they are original enough not to deserve that comparison. Surprisingly subtle and drifty, this actually has a dreamy sound - kinda stripped-down SPIRITUALIZED or more Indie soporific area. APOLITIQ break the spell with distorted washes of guitar and several vocal layers shouted, screamed and sung. The cumulative effect is charmingly messy and intentionally so. SWEAT ENGINE swap tempos around between medium and slow, and have some of the most interesting vocal fx I have heard (and as you may know, I hate most vocal treatments, which I always figure disguise a lack of talent) - thick, heavy and alien. DEATH INDUSTRY again tends to an almost commercial composition which falls short of a wider audience by the vox which use distortion as a disguise. Instruments seem to be mainly keyboards. It has a faint Gothy feel to it, but most of that is lost in the mix, or so well disguised it is now difficult to tell. TINFED bring us the penultimate number, moving up to a busy medium-fast pace with an edgy and energetic track with a surprisingly harmonic (but half-hidden) chorus. STG close the album with a fast slam dance piece with lots of stop gaps and vocals samples.This album is a statement as to the enduring strength of the scene and the variety of talent which reside beneath the Torture Tech umbrella. For an area which seems filled with TRENT REZNOR impersonators, this is almost completely NIN cliché free. Powerful moments, and a good starting place if you are interested in the music but need a guiding light.Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.