Destination: Oblivion

Could anything ever come close to the dark majesty that was Vancouver’s industrial heroes Skinny Puppy? No. But D:O tries and they make it far enough to be worthy of a few praises. It’s not like they are trying consciously to be the industrial performance art band that SP was, but Dennis Navratil’s vox can’t help but resemble Ogre’s guttural styling and the sombre piano and programming can only remind one of SP’s finer moments. For this reason, Portland’s D:O gets a smiley face from me. They have a bleakness about them as minor chord melodies make up the meat of this disc. Cold, sterile percussion creates that industrial sense of foreboding that we all know and love and crunching guitars add the post-punk finish. Not heavy enough to be metal, they do have their moments of crossing that line. Thankfully, gentler, piano-driven moments like "Waiting for the Storm” and "Desentsitize” keep the atmosphere more moody than metal.