Covenant
is a Swedish electro-industrial dance-pop trio consisting of
Eskil Simonsson
,
Joakim Montelius
and
Clas Nachmanson
. Their sound has been compared to that of a poppier
Front 242
, or maybe
Prodigy
. I'd say they're more like a cross between the chilly hookiness of
Kraftwerk
and the portentous self-importance of
Laibach
. The problem is that their hooks aren't as hooky as
's, and their self-importance isn't as justified as
's.
Simonsson
's deep, chesty voice and dour delivery lend a certain weight to the songs, but the lyrics aren't often capable of supporting that weight; if you're going to deliver lines like "Dead stars/Still burn/Dead still/Stars burn," you'd better either be singing a very worthwhile tune or you'd better be well buried in the mix beneath a butt-stomping beat. That said, there are some fine examples of old-school jackhammer industrialism here (
"Afterhours"
is a good one), as well as some very interesting textures (
"Helicopter"
). This album isn't bad, but it sometimes comes across as just a bit silly. Which does not seem to be what they were going for. ~ Rick Anderson