THE COLD WALL

It’s hard being A_liFe [DivideD]. Here they are – a bunch of German guys making some pretty good music, but can’t seem to find any label backing or general exposure. The website claims, “All big rock and metal magazines (Metal Hammer, Rock Hard, Break Out, Heavy oder was!!? and Metal Heart) ennobled the band to be one of the biggest german hopes in the scene.” Yet here we are in 2009, 6 years later after their debut, Virtualized and still nothing. Further research will tell you that it’s not lack of musical ability keeping these guys back, but rather labels don’t know how to define ALD and consequently don’t know how to market ALD. As far-fetched as it may sound, in a land that’s chocked full of hard-rock - appropriately represented by superstar, Rammstein - the thought of an hard-rock-metal-electronic-pop band getting signed sounds, well, a bit far-fetched as well. Oh and don’t worry - Jürgen Plangger sings in perfect English sporting a better vocabulary than most of the American inner-cities.

Jürgen opens with low dismal singing backed by an electronic beat until Virtualized comes at you hard. We see this kind of musical trend a lot in Virtualized: fighting faithlessness with anger, sadness with hate, and hate with dispirited resolutions. What separates it from the atypical drama-ridden bands you hear on the radio is that these aren’t mere pity cries. If Virtualized has conquered anything on their debut, it is the art of riding these emotions with solid electronic hooks and hard-rock (bordering on metal at times) ballads. It is a formula capable of being sneered at, but also a formula that if done with originality and talent – becomes overwhelmingly addictive. Consequently Virtualized will enrapture your ears, but also move on to assail your heart with angry, sad, yet hopeful music.

Be this as it may, unfortunately the lyrics can lead a listener to a couple dead ends. A general idea of relationship and world problems seems to be the topics of choice however. They seem to be whatever problems Jürgen has encountered in his life, and although the album is unfocused – the songs speak a similar language that we’ve all heard in our troubles: melancholy, remorse, questioning, and a newfound distrust of the world around us.

Overall, ALD finds their strengths in songs “Critisize”, “Static”, “Pieces”, and the remarkable cover of Alphaville’s “Sounds Like A Melody”. On “Heaven”, some of their best electronic work is done as Jürgen tries to find his reason in suffering as he utters, “Heaven awaits you” only to be killed out by the band’s angry metal track “No World Order”. From an electronic to metal track, this is a band capable of different music modes using them as they are needed.

And for a band that has done all the producing and recording in an attic themselves, Virtualized becomes quite the spectacle to behold (On a related note: nor does their 2005 album, similiarly done in the attic, Far, fall short of the bar of quality they’ve set for themselves in Virtualized). It begs the question to know what this band is capable of with a producer and studio for themselves. But in an industry that has its own personal police-force (RIAA) to grub out whatever minuscule amount of money their missing, a rock band that doesn’t appeal to a target market is looked over – and perhaps thankfully so. Yet, with limited resources and the ambition to make their own music video and website, A_liFe [DivideD] may still be heading for great things. Regardless, their 2003 debut, Virtualized, is an underground masterpiece that should not be ignored.