Spetsnaz are one of the bands that’s been on almost everybody’s lips for the last six months. All people knew of them was that they played old school EBM in the veins of Nitzer Ebb and DAF. When I first got it I played it a couple of times and the first thing that caught me was that vocalist Pontus Ståhlberg is a cloned Douglas McCarthy and the drummer Stefan Nilsson is the ditto of Bon Harris. In other words – it sounds almost identical to what Nitzer Ebb did on “That Total Age” back in 1987, and I am saying this in a very positive way! The members of Spetsnaz have been involved in other bands before and I know that they can make real music and not only the usual stomping machine-body that is represented on “Grand Design” and I believe that “Grand Design” is their tribute to the 80’s EBM-wave.
The first song, “Grand Design”, starts with a really hard and typical bass line and I really like what I hear. The thing is that I love it even more when Pontus opens his mouth and as I wrote earlier he sounds like Douglas McCarthy. What I really like about that kind of vocals is that it’s almost free from effects, and you hear no over distorted parts that can make your ear bleed at times because everybody uses them. Another song that I fell for is “Femme Fatale”. It’s got the typical, but speedy bass line and great lyrics about betrayal from the female ones. The worst song on the album, in that matter that it’s a straight copy of “Let Beauty Loose”, is “Outskirts of Eden”. I’m not saying that it’s a bad song, because it’s a killer live! But on the other hand I didn’t see any problems with them sounding like Nitzer Ebb earlier so maybe I should let it go.
If you’re new to EBM and would like to hear how EBM was made 15 years ago you should definitely get this album and I also think that you should support these guys. Another thing worth mentioning are Spetsnaz’s lyrics! It’s not the typical “[edited] electronic future, cyber, cold steel” etc, they range from love to hate, in a serious matter. “Foul Play” is a song that really got on my mind with the chorus “How can you smile at people you just cant stand”. The album is filled with these punch lines that normally never get out in daylight from bands like these.
This album shows that it’s still possible to make music with just drums, bass lines, some regular keyboard samples and a good vocalist.