Those in search of another take on Industrial Metal a la Kovenant will be more than pleased with The CNK, here re-releasing and remastering their debut album with a bevy of bonus tracks. Ultraviolence Über Alles is a stripped-down take of an epic martial style that the band would improve on with 2007's superior L'Hymne à la Joie (listening again prior to reviewing this, I must admit that I somewhat underrated it when I wrote it up at the time of release for this site) but is best approached from the usual Industrial Metal viewpoint, as the Neoclassical elements are all the better appreciated. There's something of a post-Black Metal feel, especially in the yelped vocals, yet the beats are electronic-influenced rather than blasting (despite the band members all having links to the Black Metal underground from their past work) driving the four to five minute songs with barely a let-up. I couldn't hear a great deal of variety overall; there are no shades of grey here, just pounding Industrial Metal coming at you thick and fast. None of the songs are especially poor, and none are that impressive - it's a perfectly average album.

The bonus tracks are remixes and reimaginations of existing songs by the likes of Herrschaft and Helel, and they vary from interesting to dull. Lower 48 kick things off with a Punk take on Political Police before Tamtrum go all electronica on Jim Beamed Ahnennerbe TV's ass, but the best moment is probably Helel's hysteria-filled Industrial Black Metal take on Apology. I don't normally appreciate remixes, but Helel are one of those up-and-coming bands that do great things with everything they touch, and I'm very much looking forwards to hearing more from them.

As you might expect, Industrial Metal's subject matter tends towards the political and that's more than true of the Laibach-influenced CNK. Those who raised their eyebrows at the cover art may be reassured by guitarist Heinrich Von Baalberith's proclamation: "You should look around 70's east Europe politics, Erich Honecker and Leonid Brejnev. Maybe it's not about homos tolerance, maybe it's just about dictatorshit once again, maybe both..." - all I'll say is that it's hard to dispel my feeling that The CNK would be far more interesting to interview than to actually listen to. It's hard to see anyone other than ardent Industrial Metal fans genuinely loving this, as good as it is; the promise that the band show of combining Industrial and Classical was hinted at on L'Hymne à la Joie and no doubt they have more to say in that respect. Until then, this is a neat little pack of tracks that will please fans and interest those looking for genuinely good Industrial Metal - unfortunately, you can count the number of original and top-notch Industrial Metal bands on less than ten fingers, and The CNK aren't ready to join their ranks yet.