The guys from Artificial Agent are back with a brand new album – “Death Ray”. One of the highlights from the record that was released earlier this year is the gritty and hard hitting “Always A Victim”.
Lead vocalist Derek Jendza has grown vocally from record to record, dropping in some sinister double tracked vocals before launching into his signature aggressive, almost borderline scream. It’s a controlled rage at his best. But here’s the thing. He’s developed a nice way of rounding out the end of his lines. In the past we may have heard him end the line with a dead break in the scream but on phrases in the pre-choruses like “Do you want to say goodnight” and “Do you want to get a message to me” he ends those with a pronounced ending that is really appealing to my ears. It’s one of the best ways I can describe the evolution of his vocal style and it works extremely well on this track.
There were other things that moved me during my subsequent listens. The snare drum is the perfect mix of reverb and the top and bottom of the drum. It has a very nice crack to it and keeps everything else in line. I know that drummer Karl Crafton has an array of snare drums in his collection but this one in particular has such a nice tone to it. Bassist Brad Jendza unleashes his tone that is dark, slightly over-driven and really seems to carry the song along until Derek comes in with those vocals.
Guitarist Mike Elgert provides the sound in between everything else that is going on in the song. He has some nice drop-in treats that compliment his guitar sound – left and right. Production-wise, engineer Tony Hamera mixes all of these elements into a well rounded song that doesn’t lose its live feel while still managing to still sound like a polished studio track. If you’ve listened to other hard rock albums, this isn’t always the case.
Always A Victim is easily my favorite track from their latest album, Death Ray. Could be yours too.
-Tommy Marz
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