Carphax Files- Vengeance

Artist: Carfax Files
CD Title: Vengeance
Label: Cop International
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 7/8/04

The new Carphax Files album on Cop International offers plenty of serviceable, club-friendly fare in the vein of Wumpscut and Front Line Assembly. “Machine,” “Jackal,” and “Violence In Your Eyes” feature the typical vocals shouted through a vocoder over aggressive EBM beats. Lyrically, frontman Jsin Marx deals with the usual themes of anger, nihilism, and death, with simplistic rhymes like “Lead the creed” and “Mass abominations of mass demoninations [sic].” This collection isn’t entirely without its charms – “War Cry” features some amusing samples of George Bush, and “Pugnacious Fallacies” has an old school electro vibe reminiscent of early Skinny Puppy – but overall this kind of material has already been done to death by other, better bands.