For those who feared that the Combichrist of old is dead, the title This Is Where Death Begins might sound like the final nail in the coffin as Andy LaPlegua and his crew continue to move towards a more organic heavy metal sound and further away from their electro-industrial roots.
This isn’t to say that the EBM element is gone, rather that they’ve fleshed out its skeleton with chunky guitar riffs to sink your teeth into – even solos – and gut-churning bass to create something more dynamic, heavier, and even cinematic. We Are The Plague is a no-frills, statement opener while My Life My Rules has the aggression and urgency of a particularly lairy Rammstein track, while fans of the old sound will revel in the gloriously danceable, dystopian Exit Eternity and the minimalist Glitchteeth. At 15 tracks, it’s a lot to digest, especially as the album loses momentum in the second half, but by the last line of Homeward it’s apparent that This Is Where Death Begins is not the death of Combichrist, but a rebirth.
