Reactive Black – “Upcoming Evil” (2007)

Label : Echozone/Intergroove

Review by Jon Estelle

Reactive Black is a two member band from Hamburg, Germany formed in 2005. “Upcoming Evil”, their debut, was released in 2007. The sound takes your gothic and metal elements, then adds in a bit of an electronic feel. Featuring the vocals of Sassy Skeleton and the instrumental work of Rotten, the band describes their sound as a “mixture of doom blues and dark rock”, which hits the mark perfectly. That sounds like fairly straight forward stuff for the gothic genre but if you give the band a chance you will quickly see they are far from your normal gothic band. The thing I enjoyed most about  “Upcoming Evil”  is the atmosphere. While very dark and a bit depressing at time, it is also very peaceful and easy to listen to. The vocals are very soft and the instruments feel like they are there solely to be in the background. The electronic vibes kick in at times to add in a little bit of energy. The tone throughout is varied enough to keep everything fresh for the whole ten track ride. The minimalistic approach follows the same pattern most of the time, put there are enough minor changes mixed in here and there to keep things interesting. It’s easy to warm up and feel fairly comfortable with this album early on. Highlights include the almost dance oriented “My Memories” and the more aggressive “Dancing On Your Grave”. If you find yourself enjoying darker goth music this album may be for you. It’s an extremely unique experience packed with a lot of emotion. Although not a very happy one, it paints a picture. If you are looking for a happy or cheerful message you won’t find one here. Overall, Reactive Black does something different and succeeds for the most part. I don’t see this appealing to everyone, but anyone that is into this kind of music should walk away pleasantly surprised.