Review Summary: Long, unnerving darkwave / electro-industrial journey in to the world of Evils and Animals.
Ultima Engine is yet another highly anticipated project from Roman Schilling, a German multi-instrumentalist, sound designer, and dark-electro enthusiast. This time it’s an EP – Evils and Animals contains four original tracks and a couple of remixes for the self-titled song.
With this release, Roman explores more synth territories, compared to his work with Arcane Rain. Evils and Animals is 100% dark electro/electro-industrial with an impressive pedigree. It’s a mid-tempo, repetitive melody programmed with a sinister, ghoulish sound – which makes a lot of sense as this track is dedicated to experimenting on animals and the ethical questions of living for someone else’s sake. The voice samples add to the feeling of dread and anxiety. This is one long, unnerving journey.
Sometimes it feels like a more new-school goth-industrial, while sometimes it sounds a lot like an hommage to the classics, mostly when Roman combines cleaner and harsher vocals. The samples in German also give it a diverse spin, while overall it feels like something between Sopor Aeternus and The Devil.
Red Canvas is a sexier number, a dark yet dancy track with a vibe of Fields of Nephilim. And Shred the World is the most apocalyptic in my personal chart of this EP – built around female spoken word and a faster beat.
Spastic Dance is the most experimental of the whole batch, and not exactly my piece of cake, so I play it the least.
Good to see Roman explore different territories and develop in fraternal directions. Way to go!
