qip - On Ephemeral Substrates (2015)

   Qip was a one man industrial project that intended to mix metal with electronic music. It always have been an unthankful task, especially if the metal part was pushed forward to death metal elements like in this case. Death metal audiences will hate it, while for the fans of electronic music and industrial it will be too noisy, too metal. It's enough to think about the not so many experiments of the '90s, to less successful tryings like Meathook Seed or Soulstorm, or to unique and awesome ones like Dead World, or Skin Chamber. The common thing about all of them is that these names are nearly completely forgotten and even back then they have been barely known.
   However, qip gave another alternative for similar experiments by involving the modern sound and diversity of electronic music of the '10s. In comparison, while most similar projects of the '90s (and even later, like in case of the worthily forgotten The Berzerker from Australia) seemed to have kinda limited knowledge and skills for electronic music. Back then the musical minimalism as a trending direction by industrial could have been a good reason for that, but it's not always convincing by looking at the less metal related industrial projects of the '90s. Meanwhile qip successfully crossed that barrier with ease by a wide range of atmospheric and electronic sound effects. Basically the album is way more diverse than most electronic music projects. The analogy of death metal features becoming strongly restricted for the favour of electronic elements still exists in this form too, and for this even less electronic involvement was enough too back then in the '90s. So as an industrial death metal album "On Ephemeral Substrates" falls into the same trap like its predecessors, though as melodic death it could still work at some point. But as an industrial metal album it's able to give a new, unique perspective, that could be easily distinguished from other similar bands and projects.