‘I’m never one with those who want to leave, Powerless in stagnancy, void revolt in hypocrisy, You keep running amok, but my eyes still see you’ (Subversion Shock)

The frisson of hearing the earliest industrial records is one that is still etched in my memory.  The thunderous grooves and mechanical percussion of Godflesh’s Streetcleaner and Pitchshifter’s Submit induced both the sense of something very new being unleashed, but also an ill-defined feeling of the illicit.  The very idea of not having an actual drummer seemed somehow wrong and it probably took me a little longer than it should have done to accept that drum machines weren’t inherently evil.

Since then, industrial music has morphed though many differing interpretations and become deeply embedded into the wider evolution of hardcore punk.  However, on this follow-up to their debut full-length, 2021’s Conflict State Design, Tampere’s Dome Runner take the sound back to its very origins.  Punishing slabs of riffage, waves of dissonant melody, and clankingly propulsive percussion are woven into a bleakly dystopian onslaught that vividly reanimates the spirit of those groundbreaking records.

The vocals both alternate, and are layered, between rhythmic growls and more melodic drones as they evoke a society atomised by surveillance induced paranoia and anxiety.  Amid the monolithic fury, there is also a surprising underlying catchiness that comes together with particular velocity on Subversion Shock and Stirred Impulsive Capacity.