(Review excerpt from Cyber-Psychos AOD #6.)
CHEM LAB
Burn Out at the Hydrogen Bar (Fifth Column Records)
This is a real Frankenstein's monster of a disc put together by a couple of truly decadent sons of bitches. (I have #88 of the limited edition, whose cover and fold-out insert depict an extreme close-up of vocalist/sound hack Jared Hendrickson shooting a syringe into his cock.) These guys slam together whatever sonic elements seem to even remotely work, weld them into an unforgiving hulk, then celebrate the devastation...and I love them for it. The results are loosely industrial, but since that label's become a catch-all bin for whatever anyone can't quite figure out, make of it what you will. Chem Lab still varies the final outcome quite a bit, from the dance- floor-friendly opener Codeine, Glue and You, to the cyber-sizzle of Neurozone, to the closing all-out sledgehammer assault of Summer of Hate. Song sequences are further stitched together with bursts of noise and brain-damage they call "sutures". Do you really need to be told that, lyrically, they spend a lot of the time pissed off and wracked with existential angst? Didn't think so. Belly up to the hydrogen bar, by all means...but don't get too close: you just might wind up gutted. -Brian Hodge
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