"Krach Test" carves an agorophobically vast swath through the current industrial and related electronic scenes, stylistically veering from powernoise to IDM to ambient to noise with occasional nods to EBM and even neo classical. So much raw material churns through the culverts in fact that I find it really difficult to impart both the emotive coherency and qualitative high water mark that this set has reached. This isn't just a decent collection of random tracks, it is a fucking amazing compilation that is as much an invigorating listen as it is is an important document of modern industrial culture. If some inquisitive but virginal ears asked me to pin the tail on "what's all this industrial music about then?", this set would be the hardened tool to lead them to enlightenment. We're talking desert island material, house burnt down insurance money deal. It really is that good and Ad Noiseam deserves mega cred for pulling this collection together.

Track 10 is from Pain Machinery, an unusual concatenation of submerged EBM and overt hardcore that results in something not unlike a crunchier, more mechanized Maruta Command.

Ad Noiseam's "Krack Test" has left me grasping, mentally and physically exhausted and desperately in search for new superlatives. Since I have already used up my profanity quota for this review, I can't even sneak away with a cheating "it is fucking awesome". I feel that it is criminal that this compilation was limited to only 227 copies as it is arguably the best release of the year so far and flat out one of the best industrial (or any genre for that matter) compilations ever. Yes, ever. The breadth of the material here, the consistent quality, the overall production values and the constant flow is staggering in its execution. The only compilation I can immediately think of that comes close to it in both historical relevance and representative completeness isn't even industrial, that being the 3 LP punk rawk tome "Peace". Ten years from now this compilation will be THE historical record for the 227 people who managed to score a copy. What else can you say to something like that? Other than voracious demands for a "Krach Test II" I'm fresh out of adjectives and expletives.

Excerpts from a long (good) review from industrial.org, click here to read the hole thing

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