Release Date: February 27th, 2006
Label: Tabu Records
Danish band Veto have been praised by critics for their fearless sound and selected as the opening act for portions of the Killers' European tour. The band is definitely hard to classify, as their full-length debut There's A Beat In All Machines confirms. Most tracks are synth driven, but not in the same way as many of their peers. This isn't simple eighties revivalist music, but instead an icier, brooding mixture of electronica and rock.
The album opens with the pounding, passionately sung Can You See Anything? Frontman Troels Abrahamsen immediately imbues the record with a tense, almost hysterical performance. It's absolutely riveting. You Are A Knife is the obvious single, and the most immediately catchy moment on the record. UK band Muse seem to be an influence almost throughout the entire album, especially in the slow-building melodies of Cannibal and We Are Not Your Friends, both of which manage to challenge the rock norm while remaining compact and hummable. The band's experimentalism doesn't always add up to such heights. Short Fused's scathing lyrics are let down by a song that seems to end just as it's beginning, while From A To B is perhaps too subdued for its own good. But, when everything comes together, the results are amazing. Self-Made is a hectic, brash pop song and the driving chorus is easily the album's most energetic moment.
There's A Beat In All Machines is a promising debut for a band with a different sound. It's by no means a dance album, unlike most of the synth-driven music being produced these days. Instead, Veto have created a glacial song suite: lyrically probing and slow to sneak up on the listener. Once it does, though, it's hard to forget. B
Key Tracks: Can You See Anything?, Self-Made, You Are A Knife
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