Talking Conspiracy And Industrial Metal With Skrog!

SKROG

Country of origin:

United States

Location:

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Status:

Active

Active since:

1998

Genre:

Extreme Industrial Metal

Lyrical themes:

Conspiracy, Science Fiction

Current label:

Self-Released

MEMBERS

Written and Performed by: Jay Reiter
Engineered by: Justin Schwartzbauer
Produced by: Jay Reiter, Justin Schwartzbauer, and Kelly Nicole
Additional Instrumentation by: Kristor Pihl, Justin Schwartzbauer, and Kelly Nicole

1. Your album focuses on some things that few albums actually talk about these days, one in which being the takeover by the elite. Being a member of TheVigilantCitizen blog, I've studied this information and discussed it with many like-minded individuals. But what I'd really like you to do, is to explain exactly what is going on behind our backs in not only this country; but in the world as a whole. Tell us why those who think you're just another "conspiracy theorist" should actually pay attention to the material in this recording, and how it might affect them.

First of all, let me say it’s good to be speaking with a member of TheVigilantCitizen blog. I’ve done some research through many sites both before and during the writing process of The Global Elite. I’ve checked out VigilantCitizen.com on more than a few occasions and been very impressed with the layout and information given.

As far as what’s going on behind the scenes, the basics behind this album are pointing out the power structure of the people in charge. I think it all starts and stops with big money. The Rockefellers and the Rothschilds - those are the big two of course. Big oil and banks. There are other names and players in the oil and banking industry but those two names are the big ones. The money powers are essentially making a global power grab. There’s this weird misconception going on in America right now. Anyone who is aware of the global economy crash, aware of the inconsistencies of rationale as to why America is always at war, aware of the garbage lies that both political parties sell to America and has the courage to stand up and ask questions or make obvious connections in events, they’re branded a “conspiracy theorist.” Or a “nut,” “wacko,” or any other type of discrediting name. To all of these nay-sayers, I would ask one question – Do you really, and I mean really think that it’s all that inconceivable for people who have a virtually unending source of money to conspire together and plan a take-over on such a grand scale? What’s the old saying, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely..?” It’s a lot easier to ignore or be ignorant of what’s going on. It’s a lot easier to watch American Idol or The Voice than it is to do actual research on the people who are in government power. It takes no thought to go along with what the media presents to us. It’s certainly noteworthy that the people in charge of the top three news media outlets – Fox, NBC, and CNN – are all a part of various closed door “round table” groups. These closed door groups give perfect opportunity to not only come up with a stated global plan or agenda but also a means with which to sell this idea to the Americans (and the rest of the world). I could go on and on about this all day but let me sum it up by saying that the stated agenda of the elite is the creation and maintaining of a “new world order” in which the money and government powers control every aspect of the lives of the commoner or “profane.” This translates into an end of freedom and the destruction of the American Constitution.

2. Explain the recording process for the album. How long did it take? What were your main inspirations, and what were you trying to achieve on a musical level?

The recording process was pretty straightforward. I had a bunch of material in various stages of completion. I brought the material to Justin Schwartzbauer, my producer/engineer, and he sweetened up the mix and gave me a professional, creative environment to expand on the material and finish it. We started with Submit, which was the most completed track at the time. Justin would import my mix from Reason into Cubase and essentially strip the mix down to its basics (he’d get rid of any reverb or other various effects I was using) and then redo the effects chain and clean the mix. We set up a recording room with a certain type of guitar rig (more on this later) and I re-recorded all of my guitar tracks. We used a combination of a drum machine and live drummer and I tracked all of the bass lines and vocal lines. For the less completed songs, Justin would again import what I had but we’d sit and bounce ideas off each other to finish up the song. It was a great experience and a lot of fun.

As far as inspirations are concerned, I treated each song as its own element, complete with its own set of inspirations. I’m a music fan and I’m personally influenced by all sorts of music. I wanted The Global Elite to be an amalgamation of as many of my musical influences as possible. MK-Ultra is definitely influenced by American death metal. Cannibal Corpse is my second favorite band and I’m into Vital Remains, Vader, Suffocation, Skinless, Angel Corpse, Nile, and others. I wanted something very aggressive with blast beats and MK-Ultra was my nod to the death metal side of my tastes. Military Industrial Complex is much more industrial influenced. I was thinking about old White Zombie tracks and Ministry stuff when I came up with that song. The Hunted is also very much Ministry influenced. I think you pegged what influenced The Hunter in your review. I’ll touch on that later in the interview.
As far as how long did the process take..? Well, that’s kind of a convoluted answer. I mean, technically the album took thirty-three years to make. It’s taken me my whole life to get where I am. I’ve had music in me since I was little and I’ve been passionate about metal and industrial music since I was a teenager. I’ve done garage bands and touring bands and the like but I’ve never had the opportunity to really do the professional recording studio thing. Especially uninhibited by my imagination. I’ve found that working with other musicians can be a bit compromising. I’ve had to make numerous compromises throughout any incarnation of a band being it a drummer who can’t or won’t play this or that style, a guitarist who can’t play leads, a bassist who can’t tour, and of course all sorts of musicians with various legal troubles. It’s been frustrating to get to this point but now that I’ve gotten a decent album under my belt, I’m feeling real good about things. I’m very happy with the results of The Global Elite. I guess in all practicality, it took me about three or four years to make The Global Elite. I took a midi class in college and I learned the basics of Reason. I did most of the writing of the album in Reason. It took me a couple of years to get my thoughts down into Reason, make a movie and some music videos, and meet Justin. Once Justin and I started meeting up on a regular basis and working in Cubase, it took about a year-and-a-half to track, mix, and master the album.

3. What is your perception of the metal scene as a whole these days? There is definite symbolism in some of the most popular bands out there, you'll even see the pyramid and eye symbol in Revolver's Golden Gods logo this year. Do you think the elite are working behind the scenes in even the most rebellious of music(metal)? And if so, why do you think they would do this?

I think the metal scene is alive and well. There are tons of great bands running around and making records and touring and stuff. I’ve been fortunate enough to have promoted and worked for many, many bands during Skrog’s hiatus: Deicide, Suffocation, Fear Factory, Epicurean, Sadus, Hirax, Drowning Pool, Hed PE, the list goes on and on. Kids and adults alike are coming out to shows and buying merch – at least as best as I can see. Even the real underground stuff, the unsigned acts, are getting out and being heard. The internet is a great resource for signed and unsigned music alike.

Honestly, I think most bands and media outlets use Illuminati symbolism as a catch-all. I haven’t really run into a band recently who truly understands the meaning of the symbolism and like-wise with the media outlets like magazines, TV shows, and such. I think these people, artists, and corporations use the symbolism either out of a need to identify with a certain target audience or even to create a false sense of controversy – all with the agenda of making money. Not creating actual awareness. I’d even go as far as to say that most artists using the Illuminati symbolism couldn’t spell Illuminati, let alone actually define the Illuminati. Now, is it possible that some actual members of the Illuminati/global elite are directly involved with music? Sure. Anywhere there’s big money, you’re going to find the money power. And remember, the money power is the global elite. Artists all the way from Michael Jackson to Tu Pac were talking about the Illuminati being involved with the music industry and pulling the proverbial puppet strings on certain artists’ careers. All I can say to that is, I’ve personally never dealt with that. Yet. But in the metal scene, no I honestly don’t think there are Illuminati directly involved with the metal scene. Unless you’re getting 100 million views on YouTube, I think you’re pretty safe from the money powers. You’re too small of potatoes at that point. The Illuminati are looking to get their message out to a very, very large amount of people. And metal heads are pretty savvy to corporate manipulation of music, I think.

4. Explain "The Revelation," the very first track on the album. Do you actually believe in the Bible, or just find it interesting that the prophecies in it are synching up with the events of today. Do you think that early elite could have actually had a hand in the book?

I was raised in a Christian household. The Bible has been a pretty regular read around my house but I’ve also taken the time to read other religious books as well. I definitely find the Bible to be the best moral compass I’ve ever come across and I’ve found a certain fascination with the book of Revelation. I believe in God and Jesus for sure. But really, I tried not to use The Global Elite as a religious soap box. My goal is for people to become tolerant of all religions. That’s what the Constitution stands for. Tolerance. That’s also a very important word when used in conjunction with the word freedom. Freedom is tolerance. Tolerance is freedom. My goal with the song “The Revelation” was to draw parallels between the book of Revelation and what’s going on globally. There is always some sort of bill on the table in Congress to somehow get the RFID chip implemented. The most recent is with Obama’s last term of trying to tie in the need for identification through the food stamp program. Once the RFID chip standard has been implemented, that’s it. Game over. Or game on, depending on what your point of view is. I’m 100% convinced that RFID chips are the mark of the beast. The “666” that everyone’s heard of. Whether you believe in God or not, the bottom line is the shit that’s talked about in the Bible is real. You can sit there and shake your head and roll your eyes to your heart’s content but those smart people who actually take the time to do the research soon all come to the same conclusion. Biblical prophecy is a legitimate phenomenon. Israel getting their own nation in 1948 was a huge fulfilled prophecy. That definitely moved the Military Industrial Complex into what we are dealing with today. As far as any elite aiding in writing the Bible, no, I don’t think so. I’ve heard the argument before that the Bible has been written and rewritten so many times, blah blah blah. That’s all a bunch of nonsense from today’s standing. Translators have had access to the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Biblical writings for years and years now. Maybe once upon a time, a crooked and corrupt church used the writings to manipulate weak kings like four hundred years ago. That’s not the case anymore.

5. Explain the MK-Ultra mind control project, and other versions of mind control (Monarch for example) that we could be exposed to on a daily basis. What are some symbols that we are exposed to daily, which we might not even be aware of?

MK-Ultra is an extreme low point in American governmental history. This is one major point of evidence that not only is the CIA a really bad thing for America, it’s also proof that the government is literally against its people. MK-Ultra was mind control experimentation. It was using drugs like methamphetamines, LSD, and others to create what’s known as a “Manchurian Candidate” – a spy who, using a code word or specific secret code, would literally take on a new personality to kill a target, and through another code of some sort, turn back into their original personality with no memories of the assassination. This whole series of events directly played into very important historical events like the ‘60’s counter-culture as well as the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Back in the fifties there was a Harvard professor named Timothy Leary. Leary was approached by the CIA and given large doses of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. He was given specific instructions to give out the LSD in certain college sanctioned experiments to unsuspecting American citizens. And yes, I did say Harvard sanctioned these experiments. The outcome of these drug experiments did anything but create a docile, passive, easy to control individual. Quite the opposite. These drugs created an aware and pissed off group of teenagers and young adults who became increasingly aware of the military expansion through Vietnam and the execution of JFK. This is of course why the government needed LSD and other psychotropic drugs to become illegal. An interesting point to note is that Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber) is a known victim of the MK-Ultra conspiracy. Which of course leads to the question, if the government is involved with crazy TERRORISTS who BOMB CERTAIN AMERICAN LANDMARKS, why would they do this?

As far as specific symbolism is concerned, it’s everywhere. The All Seeing Eye (CBS logo, back of the one dollar bill, Eye of Ra, etc), the five pointed star, Freemasonry symbols are all over the place, the torch (Standard Oil, Columbia Pictures, Statue of Liberty), and more.

6. Explain the "Military Industrial Complex" to those who might not be aware of it. Why is this important?

The Military Industrial Complex is a term that President Eisenhower coined in his farewell address. He was warning the American people that there was a grave potential for a disharmony between the balance of power in the U.S. Military, U.S. science field, and even U.S. Government. The Military Industrial Power, for all intent and purpose, is a combination of the various facets of government control. The CIA, TSA, FEMA, DHS, and even Congress are involved. The Bilderberg Group and CFR are involved. NAFTA is a part. The NDA and SOPA are involved. The Federal Reserve is involved. The UN is definitely a major part of all of this. These government agencies are UNCONSTITUTIONAL. That’s right. They’re all illegal according to the constitution. The fact that a foreign government body is on American soil (the UN) is reprehensible and the American members involved should be tried for treason against the U.S. These government agencies, along with NATO and other military installations are the threat to the sovereignty of Americans. These agencies and the bills that are suggested and pushed through Congress are what’s taking away Americans’ rights on an almost daily basis. The Federal Reserve just prints money backed by nothing. Our money is worthless. America is bankrupt. To quote the Joker, “It’s all part of the plan.” Have you noticed there are more “lone wolf” assassins lately? And have you also noticed
that after each of these “lone wolf” assassination attempts there is a public outcry to ban guns? To answer my question before, about why the government would support terrorist activity within the U.S. borders, it’s really quite simple: One – disarm the American citizens. What’s the easiest way to overtake a nation or large body of people? Disarm them. Two – these actions create fear. And when the American populace is afraid, they look to Big Brother (the government) to solve their problems. Underwear bomber threatening your airline? Don’t worry. We’ll just have a group of people (TSA) feel up your grandma, shove their hands down the pants of your wife, and rip the diaper off your baby. This is, of course, all in the name of security. Money problems got you down? Don’t worry, we’ll just install RFID chips into the hands of the Americans and we’ll put free money credits on the chip. Of course, if you don’t do as we say, vote as we say, or play along with our set of rules, the credits disappear and you won’t eat. Anyone remember the quote about those who give up freedom for the sake of security…?

7. We just had an election. Barack Obama won that election, even though I voted for a third-party candidate. Do you believe that the third party has a chance at all in this country, and did you actually participate in voting this year?

I almost wasn’t able to vote. I’m between homes at the moment and consequently the registrars for voting frown upon a person who doesn’t have a physical address. But, fortune smiled upon me and I was able to vote. I voted for Ron Paul. I don’t give a shit what anyone says about “Ole’ Kooky Uncle Paul.” I don’t see anyone else out there talking about eliminating absurd military spending and championing freedom like Dr. Paul. And don’t give me any of this “he’s a racist!” nonsense. That’s all bullshit. So’s the ridiculous assertion that voting for a candidate other than the Democrat or Republican nominee is “throwing away my vote.” That’s the most absurd piece of shit nonsense I’ve ever heard. Obama is a shit president. All he’s done is lie and expand big government. Romney is so far removed from the middle class it’s absurd to think he knows anything about the plights of the poor and what’s best for them. Ron Paul is a doctor whos record is as perfect as a person can have in his position. I think Governor Jesse Ventura said it best when he said that right now we have a two party system which is like a two headed monster. If we add a third party to the system, we have a three headed monster. I agree with his notion of the complete abolishment of all political parties. Too many people vote either Democrat or Republican just because that’s all they know. Single issue voters piss me off too. You mean to tell me that you’re not going to vote for this or that guy because he either does or doesn’t support abortion? Who gives a fuck about that?? Let’s worry about the real issues – the deficit, the declining dollar, the expansion in military spending, the expansion of the takeover of the Middle East… These are the things that matter. Worry about the lesser issues of gay marriage, abortion, and the like for when we can actually stop carpet bombing other countries. It sickens me to think that people actually care more about what a woman does with her womb or if an adult smokes a joint than, say the hundreds of unmanned drones overseas bombing the shit out of everybody. And why are we doing this? Oh yeah, for oil, territory, and to cripple a foreign government into subservience of the Federal Reserve. You want ACTUAL CHANGE IN AMERICA? Here are two great suggestions: One – abolish the party system. Abolishing the party system will make it much easier for other candidates to debate. You can’t win the presidency if you can’t debate. The “council of debate policies” or whatever the hell it’s called is a farce. Who put these jerk offs in charge? I sure the hell didn’t. Anyone, and I mean ANYONE should be able to contend and debate for the presidency. Provided they’re natural American citizens, of course. The second suggestion is to force candidates to wear jumpsuits that have the logos of every single financial contributor during the campaign. They should also have to list all of their sponsors in every single add. Who’s backing this guy? Oh, Goldman Sachs (the most financially crooked and irresponsible bank EVER) is backing Obama? Huh. No wonder he wanted big bank bailouts. Bet that kind of knowledge would have been a factor in the election.

8. Let's talk about the metal part of this project. What gear are you using on this album? Will we see the same thing in a live setting, perhaps? This would be great material to actually get out to the masses.

Well, I’m using an MCS BV-I guitar tuned to A# standard with a Kahler trem system and Seymour Duncan Blackout Humbuckers. Just a beefy, shredtastic guitar. Unfortunately, MCS is now a defunct company, so I’m looking for a new guitar company to work with. The amp I used was actually custom built by Justin. I’m actively looking for a company to rebuild the amp specifically to the specs used on the album. That’ll be Skrog’s endorsed amp model. I used a Mesa Boogie cab for the album but I usually use Vader cabinets. Since Adam’s out of the cab business, I’m looking for a new cab company to work with. It’ll probably be the same company who builds the amps. I use a Morely Bad Horsey II wah pedal too. It’ll be interesting to see what companies are interested in teaming up with Skrog for live settings and future albums.

9. What bands are you into these days? Any you'd recommend in particular?

Y’know, I’ve really been going back and listening to my classic influences. I haven’t really been searching out new music so much as going back and appreciating some of the greats. I’d highly recommend the following albums to anyone who digs Skrog:

Slayer – anything they’ve come up with but specifically Seasons In the Abyss and Divine Intervention
Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven
Megadeth – Rust In Peace
Skinny Puppy – The Process and Greater Wrong of the Right
Ministry – Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste and Psalm 69
Strapping Young Lad – Heavy As A Very Heavy Thing and City
Frontline Assembly – Hardwired and Tactical Neural Implant
Bile – Suckpump
Nile – In Their Darkened Shrines and Those Whom The Gods Detest
Vader – Necropolis
Dimmu Borgir – Puretanical Misenthropic Euphoria
Immortal – Sons of Northern Darkness
Testament – The Gathering
Lamb of God – Ashes In the Wake and As the Palaces Burn
Acid Bath – As the Kite String Pops
Pitchshifter – Infotainment and the Submit EP
Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile
Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar
White Zombie – Astro Creep 2000

10. Near the end of the album, there are some very familiar sections in "The Hunter" and "The Hunted." I heard one of the Brinstar themes, (and it's the first time I've actually heard a cover of that theme - most people pick Ridley or Kraid's theme) and was quite surprised that you mixed an album about the elite with Super Metroid. I also got a feeeling that the hunter might have been Samus Aran. Why did you choose to mix these odd themes of conspiracy and video games together? Also, what did you think of Metroid: Other M?

I’ll start this off saying sadly, I haven’t played Other M yet. I REALLY REALLY want to. I’m just too damned broke to be buying a Wii at this time. I chose to view the video game-ish side of the album as specifically musical. It was a musical choice, not a thematic choice. Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano created the first real “industrial” experience for me. The musical score for Super Metroid is one of the best video game musical compositions ever. I love the blend of organic and synthetic tones in the game. I’ve always wanted to redo certain aspects of the score in an actual “metal/industrial” sense. Meeting with Justin and creating The Global Elite really gave me the opportunity to do that. The Hunted is actually the first song I ever tried writing as Skrog. That song goes back to 1998. I had a Sony Music Generator “game” for the PlayStation. It allows users to import their own samples and manipulate the samples (slightly) in a timeline along with preprogrammed samples and synth tones. I was playing around with various different samples and guitar licks and I was using samples from the Super Metroid video game. I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted though. I didn’t just want to sample the score and layer guitars on top of it. I wanted to actually recreate my own version of certain parts of the score, using my own blend of synths, samples, and instruments. I wanted something far more organic than just simply ripping off the game. I wanted my own “voice” in the mix. The Hunter/The Hunted was the song that got Justin interested in Skrog. He’d been wanting to do the exact same thing with the exact same part of the score. We really jived together during that creation. It was great fun and I’m glad I was able to get those songs out and recorded the way they were recorded. The songs sound great and I’ve very pleased with the results. So again, these choices and decisions were all made from a musical standpoint. It just worked. I would actually say out of anything on the album that might stand out as a bit different from the rest of the album thematically would be “Dark Metamorphosis.” I was working on a remix of my short zombie film Arise and I needed a zombie song. Plain and simple. I felt that the song still worked on the album and even though it’s a strange departure from the gloom and doom of global conspiracies, I felt that it was an appropriate departure. Even greats like Slayer will have very serious and socially relevant songs about gang killing and abortion on the same album that has songs about serial killers and occultism. If the songs work on the album, they just work regardless of what each individual song may be about.

11. Might we hear more video game references/tunes on subsequent albums? What games are you currently into, and what games of past and present would you derive inspiration from?

I may do some video game-ish stuff in the future. I may not. I don’t really know. I don’t want to be pigeon holed as a “video-game-industrial-metal-band,” y’know what I mean? I guess we’ll see what happens the next time I’m in a studio. I dig the Halo series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, any of the Super Mario games, any of the Metroid games, the Castlevania series is great – specifically Symphony of the Night, all of the Final Fantasy games, the Doom series was great, Skyrim is pretty cool, the Arkham Asylum series looks pretty good, Castle Crashers was great, and the Contra series was always fun. Yoshi’s Island was tons of fun back in the day too. I’m also a big fan of the old school arcade games like Alien VS Predator, Street Fighter 2 (and all the subsequent games), Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, The Punisher, Robocop, etc.

12. Finally, imagine that you can see several years into the future. What do you see?

I see the end of liberty
I see the start of tyranny
I hear the cries of innocents
Beginning a new age of control
I see global warfare
I see destruction near and far
The signs – to prevalent to ignore
Beginning the New World Order
Woe unto the Earth
Woe from our leaders
Creating desolation
For you

Written by: Jay Reiter - Skrog





Skrog - The Global Elite (PR2012) - Skrog is an industrial metal project from former Skull Fuckers Incorporated (which is probably a twist on NIN's "Star Fuckers Incorporated") member, Jay Reiter. He also worked in Descendants Of Cain, and managed several bands in Wisconsin. The project originally began in 1998, but was put on hold because of these other musical endeavors. But fast forward to 2012, with the Skrog album "The Global Elite."

Now there is much I want to address about this album, and I will get to the music in a moment. First of all, this album addresses some definite irregularities in our current society, specifically those related to the Elite, The Illuminati, The pre-NWO, excetra. While not a Bible man by any means, (as I even believe that they had a hand in that) this album certainly speaks of a tyrannical control by an oppressive elite, and it's one of the first metal albums that I've ever heard to address the concept of MK Ultra mind control with "MK Ultra 4:15." I'm sure that those of you who have been to my other blog know that I frequent these topics quite a bit and strongly believe that the rich elite do want to control our food, water, air, money and more. And why would this be, exactly? Because they're greedy bastards and they don't know any better but to want MORE. One is supposed to live within one's means, but not everyone has enlightened themselves to that point yet, and it is why our planet suffers.

But onto the music now. The metal that Skrog plays is very much in the style of Ministry. Some have said that Devin Townsend moments are here, but I consider them very few, and would liken this heavily to the nature of the now defunct Texan industrial powerhouse. Even the vocals mimic Al Jourgensen, and were he not dissuaded (Relapse was off the ball and didn't seem to mention any of these things, like the conspiratorial nature in the Bush trilogy.) by some unknown means, he would have covered these topics. One in particular I feel is necessary, is the symbolism in the media (covered by vigilantcitizen.com) like Kanye West and his odd decision to wear a pair of pants that had Baphomet heads, and the word "METAL" on them. Yes. Look it up on the internet. Type in "Kanye West Metal" in a google search engine. Now what's this R&B pop star dude want with fucking metal? I was going to "like" him and then spam the fuck out of his facebook, asking him when "his metal record" was coming out, as well as asking the dude if he was going to scream and growl on it. Could've sworn that guy was a Christian... and even if he was into metal, not too many Christian guys are into having Baphomet heads on them. but then there was Ke$ha wit a big inverted black metal pentagram on her dress. Because you know how much she fucking loves Satan. I think it's all publicity, but it's pretty fucked up at any rate and if we make fun of it, they'll hopefully quit it and go back to playing horrible music...

Unlike this guy, who can actually put out some worthy industrial metal. This disc is a beast that thrashes, while the "mad scientist" screams and growls throughout, with emotional rage. He really believes in these words, and it shows. Though "Revelation" seems a bit thin, and "MK Ultra" has a strong chorus and a sort of disillusioned nature to it, I really feel that "Submit 5:36" is one of the strongest tracks on here. The disc is crushing until 32 minutes in, where he decides he wants to do something a little different. Not that this is a bad decision, but the Super Metroid influence of "The Hunter 10:12" might take some listeners aback. And yes Jay, that's the latter area of Brinstar (the red area as I've called it) right before you get into the tube that can be broken later in the game which leads into Maridia, (any chance you'll do the music there? It always had a dreadful aquatic nature) and then you keep going through to get to Norfair.

But what's cool about the track, "The Hunter 10:12" is that it's the first time I've heard that theme for Brinstar (the oriental natured one) done with instruments other than SNES synth and done right. There was a smile on my face from ear to ear. It even got heavier towards the end, and that's one thing I love - metal video game tunes. There's even a solo here, but you'll find that one of them appears on most of these tracks. Jay isn't afraid to play a solo on these tracks and they all seem to work, more often than not. They're also not always the sort of rock and roll-esque solo you'd expect. As for the disc's closer, "The Hunted 4:14" it's a short track that leaves us with what I truly believe... an elite that is even more paranoid than they think that we are. Not to mention the fact that Samus Aran might be hunting the bastards down, as it incorporates the Metroid theme.

So if you wanted a Ministry fueled romp through the destruction of our world and the assault on Zebes at the same fucking time, then you're getting what you ask for right here. I really hope that Jay will continue this kind of work, I find it to be awesome and informative at the same time. I never thought someone would cater to both my conspiratorial sense and video game metal at the same time. I'm speechless. But in all honesty, it still needs some work in areas and with more time, could be further developed. I also don't think it's entirely appropriate to mix the video game material in with the conspiracy themed album, as it kind of makes the listener scratch their head. There's also a song on here about the undead, "Dark Metamorphosis 4:43" but it was solid at best and didn't really match the theme of the disc; so I didn't exactly put much stock into it.

At any rate, it's a pretty damned good effort. Well worth it for industrial metal fans like myself, and much better than some of the Russian industrial stuff I've been trying to get into. But maybe I'll hit gold there, sometime! Hopefully on the next disc he'll talk about Monarch mind control and sex-kitten imagery. "Hello Kitty" is a big factor in this. I can't even believe the kids never ask. Maybe because the image is perceived as "cute" and it blocks the mind's comprehension of that concept. Eh... just look it up.

Highlights: The Revelation, Military Industrial Complex, Submit, End Of The World (As You Know It), The Hunter, The Hunted (8 Tracks, 47:00)

http://skrog.bandcamp.com/