KHZ – Reality on a Finer Scale – Review

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Reality on a Finer Scale (Propain)
by Daniel Lukes

It’s a rare turn of events when a band gets harder over time. It’s usually the other way ’round, from noisy inaccessibility down the slippery road to pop-rock blandness, as rough edges are smoothed over, corners worn down, and hobnail boots exchanged for pipe and slippers. So it’s cool to hear that NYC female-fronted electro-rockers KHZ have largely looked beyond the pleasing electro-noir slinkiness of their 2000 second album, Emotronic, and turned into a full-on aggro industrial rock act, for the most part. Which isn’t to say that crooner Raiana Paige doesn’t in places possess the voice filled with purring grace and moody sensuality that has made this band such an interesting proposition so far. On “Envy,” it smoulders to a backdrop of nocturnal metropolitan unease and dread, on “Inside,” it writhes to the tune of a Gothic agony-imbued lament, and on “Broken (What Could’ve Been),” it flirts with the darkened pop of their previous releases. Elsewhere, she bellows forth bile-fuelled screams and yells like the best of them, whilst backed up by jagged riffs and pulsating rhythms more reminiscent of Undertow-era Tool than of, say, Garbage. With so many female-fronted bands going the slick Evanescence/Nightwish neo-classical Goth swoon route these days, Reality on a Finer Scale is both a compelling diversion and a suitably filth-encrusted angelic/demonic journey through the dark side.
(www.thekhz.com)