[Reviewed by Peter Marks]
It always pays to keep tabs on what Aliens Production do because they have a way of sifting through the chaff of this digital age with unerring precision. A fine example of this would be the latest album from The Opposer Divine, it pulls no punches and apes no other styles. This is dark electro in perhaps it’s purest state, my friends. No ballads, no pop tendencies and absolutely no mercy. Slow, medium and high tempos? He does them all and mixes them together so well that at times it is difficult to tell where one ends and the next begins; this has been his approach on the last two albums but don’t expect to catch his work being played at the next club night you attend.
The Opposer Divine’s roots are firmly planted in experimental and atmospheric composition. That ‘Reverse//Human’ has faster tracks on it is a matter of pure coincidence, he’s done them only to suit the mood of this album as a whole. I applaud the contrasting and at times clashing table of elements he’s conjured; the synthesis is absolutely ascendant. There’s not a single sound in any of these eleven tracks which ever makes me sit up and shake my head despondently. This is something which continues to happen to other wunderkind acts out there at an alarming rate as they cling to the past or jump on bandwagons; our man here is firmly focused on creating with his eyes on the future. His albums over the years underline this aim boldly.
He likes things moody, he enjoys the nihilism present in our lives and most of all he’s one to never give you the same thing twice. You’re not going to put this on and halfway through find yourself nodding off into a dull familiarity, this opposer fashions entire worlds with his machinery. He delivers not just music but a veritable cinema to behold behind your closed eyes as you make your way through what he does. About the only other band out there I’d compare him to would be Second Disease because they, too, have a morbid fixation on our world. ‘Reverse//Human’ would not have fit in back in the 90s however, there’s just too much going on in his tracks; the variance of emotion is jaw dropping to take in, there is an obscure, cunningly concealed human heart beating in the midst of all this misanthropy.
If you’d like to try and make out his words be my guest. I’ve had this record for a bit now and can’t fully decipher what is going on, he likes to bury his voice in the mix; behind bone crushing beats and superbly crafted transitions he stealthily carries on with his mission. A lone voice, perhaps but he’s hardly the only one who feels alienated by what he’s seeing around him these days. Humanity by and large aren’t aspiring to anything grand yet The Opposer Divine is; his future is a bright one, which isn’t what his music depicts at all. I’ve been watching this one for a while now and he improves dramatically each time he appears, the closing number on here is proof of that.
You’re not going to find any misfires throughout ‘Reverse//Human’s run but “Deceit of the Saints” must be heard to be believed. Riveting.
The Opposer Divine – Reverse//Human
Aliens Production, AP 35
CD/Digital 2016
Santa Sangre 