A year after ending his career with the Dillinger Escape Plan, Greg Puciato is now putting all of his energy into the much less chaotic electronic project the Black Queen, along with Telefon Tel Aviv mastermind Josh Eustis and former TDEP and Nine Inch Nails guitar tech Steve Alexander. The synth-pop outfit carefully crafted a spectacularly dark and emotional record with their sophomore album, Infinite Games.
The band's sound develops on the dark electronic pop they pulled off so well on their debut record, Fever Daydream, while diving deeper into their ambient material than before. Tracks such as "No Accusations" and "Impossible Condition" beautifully draw on lo-fi ambient sounds drowned in thick synths, with Puciato's vocals colouring the songs with an R&B-tinged croon.
They dig into cold, goth-tinged pop sounds particularly well on tracks such as "Thrown Into the Dark," "Lies About You" and "Spatial Boundaries," carving out a path that lies somewhere between Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails' less rock-oriented material. Managing to capture a wide range of tones across the record, the Black Queen touch on soft acoustic sounds on "Porcelain Veins" while "One Edge of Two" closes the album with a dark, yet poppy atmospheric touch.
While this release isn't going to please every single fan of the Dillinger Escape Plan, the ones who enjoyed the band's softer songs will fall in love with Infinite Games and the band as a whole if they haven't already. Furthermore, the record has a wide-reaching sound that will easily draw in fans of electronic and pop who may one day discover what came before the Black Queen and be pleasantly surprised, or maybe just a little confused.
(Independent)The band's sound develops on the dark electronic pop they pulled off so well on their debut record, Fever Daydream, while diving deeper into their ambient material than before. Tracks such as "No Accusations" and "Impossible Condition" beautifully draw on lo-fi ambient sounds drowned in thick synths, with Puciato's vocals colouring the songs with an R&B-tinged croon.
They dig into cold, goth-tinged pop sounds particularly well on tracks such as "Thrown Into the Dark," "Lies About You" and "Spatial Boundaries," carving out a path that lies somewhere between Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails' less rock-oriented material. Managing to capture a wide range of tones across the record, the Black Queen touch on soft acoustic sounds on "Porcelain Veins" while "One Edge of Two" closes the album with a dark, yet poppy atmospheric touch.
While this release isn't going to please every single fan of the Dillinger Escape Plan, the ones who enjoyed the band's softer songs will fall in love with Infinite Games and the band as a whole if they haven't already. Furthermore, the record has a wide-reaching sound that will easily draw in fans of electronic and pop who may one day discover what came before the Black Queen and be pleasantly surprised, or maybe just a little confused.
