Review:

		9/10
		Artist: Diorama Title: Cubed Format: CD Label: Accession Records Genre: Electronic Release date: March 19, 2010

“Cubed” is the title of the seventh album from Diorama. Back in 2007 the band released their latest longplayer “A Different Life” and after nearly exact three years they returned this february with their highly successful single “Child Of Entertainment” prior to the new album out on March 19th. The regular album comes packed with 13 tracks and will also be available in a Deluxe Edition featuring a second CD with five bonus tracks and extensive graphical artwork.

It starts out with the album version of “Child Of Entertainment” that has a slightly changed intro of a more harmonic touch. Other then that, compared with the single version, it’s practically the same. The next track “Acic Trip” is a rather rough track and delivers even more of it with the harsh guitars from Sash. The clubby “Ignite”, with it’s great rhythmic feeling and alot of energy, gives me a hint that it will be a very popular live track but also welcomed on the dancefloors. This is probably my favorite track on the album together with “COE”. With its gloomy atmosphere, the following “Gone Gone Gone” brings the listener a very emotional track with sad lyrics and moody feeling. The synths that is followed through the entire song is very hypnotic and what really makes you to concentrate on the lyrics, just for you to discover how good the song really is.

The concept for this album is that your cube is where your life takes place, where you present yourself or even where you watch the outside and the outside is watching back. All this is presented with the next track, “Cubed”. It starts out very dense, before the gloomy synths fade in followed by the lyrical line ‘Define your cube, and all you need in it’. “Record Deal” is another clubby approach. The rhythms is hard to resist to move along and with the synthetic soundscapes and the heavy beats blended with Sash’s guitar makes it a great track. Followed is a ballad in the name of “My Counterfeit”, a beautiful track but yet very emotional. The song consist of a dominant piano but also draws attention with instruments to the Jazz genre. The next track “Refugee” constantly shifting between a soft and moody atmosphere with an heavy industrial-like apporoach. The feeling is that it plays with the ballad style and the harsher one in the same track and the last two minutes of the track is outstanding.

With “Alpha Animal Complex” the band delivers a track with a great melodic structure and lyrics to create a very powerful track. It’s rhythmic with an amazing atmospheric feeling to it. “Lord Of The Lies” is another ballad but compared to the first one, this offers a much darker tone with a densed beat structure pounding in the background and creepy atmosphere.

The final output of this is, as with all previous albums, very mature with great lyrical structure, amazing melodies and the constant variety making it an album appealing to everyone. It gets better by every listening and builds its way up and every time you find something amazing.

Tracklist:

01. Child Of Entertainment
02. Acid Trip
03. Ignite
04. Gone Gone Gone
05. Cubed
06. Apocalypse Later
07. Record Deal
08. My Counterfeit
09. Refugee
10. Alpha Animal Complex
11. Golden Boy
12. Lord Of The Lies
13. Stereotype