13. Genghis Tron "Board Up The House" (2008)

What it is: Spazzy electro-metalcore shizz
Favorite Track: Board Up The House

When approaching this album one of the biggest mistakes you can make is expecting a brutal, thrashed-up electronic grindcore album. Because it's not, but knowing this may make your listening experiance more enjoyable and less dissapointing. Genghis Tron's 2008 release sounds like a Converge album as played by Robots on crystal meth.

The album kicks off with the eerie opening of the title track, and from there it's history. From the opening screams, you're grabbed by the throat and taken along on a magical musical journey through the deepest depths of the human imagination. Every change in tempo, every hair-raising keyboard note, every mechanical guitar riff is a hairpin turn. This all sounds overly pretentious, but that's what it sounds like.

Genghis Tron are unlike anything I've ever heard. They definitely borrow from bands like Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan, but their sound is unique, and even more intense. What I like about this music is it's almost frightening. The band consists of two keyboardists, one of which who does vocals and a guitarist. No drummer here, that's all in the programming!

While most of their vocals are screamed, Genghis Tron incorporates many layers of murky clean vocals, which are often crucial in achieving the high level of intensity in their music. In the epic I Won't Come Back Alive they're even catchy.

Whoever writes the lyrics for Genghis Tron (I believe it's vocalist Mookie Singerman) certainly impresses me, particularly on the title track with the almost horror movie-like lyrics.

Well, it gave me the creeps, and the atmosphere of their music didn't help the situation either.

Genghis Tron have it all, all the elements I love in music. Screaming vocals, experimental tendencies, progressiveness, complexity, intensity, and an overall sound that would drive my parents up the wall.

If you are able to stomach this kind of music, I would highly recommend this album. Many people like Dead Mountain Mouth better, but I think they achieved more with Board Up The House. If you should decide to give it a listen, all I can tell you is be prepared for forty three and a half minutes of MADNESS.