ALBUM REVIEW: System Of Hate – There Is More Madness Here (self-released)
System Of Hate are post-punk noise merchants from Barnsley who’ve acquired quite a following over the years, from their own shows and regular appearances at Rebellion Festival.
After self-releasing a couple of EPs, their debut album Hallowed Ground emerged in 2016, and their hard, dark, street-goth punk sound (think Killing Joke/Theatre Of Hate) won them even more fans.
Album number two, There Is No Madness Here, came out on Louder Than War in January 2019, to good reviews.
However, the band declared themselves not entirely happy with it, and decided to ask a few friends to have a go at remixing it.
They’ve got form for this sort of thing; their 2014 EP Insanity received the remix treatment, as did four tracks from their first album.
This time the album’s original 10 songs are transformed into a mammoth 29-track remix collection.
That means, of course, that there’s duplication; we get four versions of Who Walks With God and three of most others.
There’s too much music here to digest in one sitting, or even two. But what it does give us is a rich collection which you’ll go back to time and again.
Post-punk
In its original incarnation, the original There Is No Madness Here album is relentless, full-on post-punk from start to finish.
Here, in the hands of others, the songs come across as very different creations indeed.
Most intriguingly, System Of Hate co-founder Pat Crawford has remixed We Who Walk With God, while keyboard player Tony Jackson has produced a Pop Tones mix of Resurrected, presumably named for its PiL-like sound.
Martin Aylward, who joined on drums in December 2019, has remixed two tracks. System Of Hate and Ill Are The Cursed are much less dense, taking on a much bleaker, more electronic feel.
Black Fire, originally a doom-laden rocker, is becomes more angular and bleak in Liam Stewart’s remix, which started the whole project.
The same song also gets a dub makeover from Brian Featherstone, with new vocals from System Of Hate frontman Suty.
Therapy?, mainstays of the alt-rock scene for more than 30 years, turn the urgent Resurrected into a very different song indeed, while John Robb gives an off-the-wall Membranes remix to Rising.
The Webb turn the title track into an electro-goth stomper with added female vocals, while the same song sounds different again remixed by Scott Doonican, from Barnsley parody folksters The Bar-Steward Sons Of Val Doonican, who stay serious for once.
Gothic sounding
Internationally-acclaimed producer Steve Whitfield, who’s worked with The Mission and The Cure, as well as playing in Scenius and Klammer, reworks Tears Of Blood, and makes it sound like The Prodigy.
The Batboy Slim remix of the same song brings the vocals to the fore, and manages to make the backing music even more creepily gothic.
There’s so much music here that everyone will have their own favourite tracks. Mine’s the dub version of Black Fire, as it’s so utterly different to everything else. 7/10.
