Celldweller

(Position)
by Scott Hefflon

Celldweller have the potential to be huge. Klayton used to be in Circle of Dust (electro/industrial rage, hard dance, and clean, passionate singing like both nü metal and real metal [post-black metal, etc.] began incorporating when they got sick of roaring all the time, and, uh, realized more girls’d come to gigs if they emoted a bit), a band around in the mid-’90s, about the time Mortal Kombat, Machines of Loving Grace, Chemlab, and a handful of others made us all think electronic music and metal were going to meld and kick some ass! Then, of course, Bush co-opted it and KMDFM, the AC/DC of industrial, cranked out 10 identical albums, and people decided emo and garage revivals had more to offer than, like, Static-X.

This Klayton dude can sing, ya know? Part Tool, part Opeth, part non-distorted anthemic industrial, lots of passion and soul, whispers and groans (yeah, mention Korn here, and then go wash your mouth out with soap), belts and, yes, metal roars… Ok, amidst all the tweaked beats and skitter, there’s enough dumbass roar to appeal to the WWE crowd (Celldweller has been on wrestling comps, in video games and theme songs and probably in those shitty “hip” movies they try to pass off as horror these days), but hey, a guy’s gotta eat, ya know?

I’m not one to call anyone the savior of anything, cuz there’s plenty of good stuff out there if you can dig past all the stuff on Roadrunner and other labels trying to sell you their 10 bands that all sound like that one song ya heard and thought was cool, but Celldweller have the good sense to mix in some icy industrial, some breakbeat freakouts, some ranting, and some crystalline, heartbreaking verses… And the record is 70 minutes long, so you don’t have to get outta bed naked and change the CD when you’re fucking.
(www.celldweller.com)