Review of The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord [Vinyl - 1985]

I don't own much Cabaret Voltaire and I honestly don't like the band a whole lot and this album is a good reason why. It's not that I hate it it's just to odd and spans a couple genre's I don't care for. I don't like the lyrics for the most part either and if I had my pick of 80's industrial bands this group would not be in the Top 10.

The first track, L21ST is kinda like a mix between 80's Herbie Hancock meets Art of Noise. Very odd and funky and not my bag at all. I Want You is a fairly good track and very dancable. It sounds so aged though, but so does most of this music at its time. I like this track though and the keys in the course are good too. Hells Home just sounds like a mess and almost sounds like it was played live. Kickback, again, has that Art of Noise feel to it mixed with some funky bass pads. I don't mind this song too much but it suffers from the fact that it's to long and the lyrics repeat themselves often. The Arm of the Lord is just pointless filler.

Onto side B with Warm. This kicks off the side very well and this is a pretty good track. It's fast and dancable. Almost very club sounding for 1985. Good use of sexual moan samples too! Golden Hales goes back to that funky sound with it's slap bass guitar. It's a slower moving track and I like this one too. I has a good flow and good use of samples and it's not to complicated. Motion Rotation nearly made me laugh the first time I heard it with it's fucked up vocal sample splicing at the start. This track is pretty good too and is probably my favourite from this LP. Heavy beat and not too funky. Whip Blow I don't like at all. I picks up near the end but for the most part it's slow and lifeless sounding. The final track, The Web, bring back the funky sound again and I don't like it much. It has it's moments but the keys are very jazzy sounding and it doesn't work for in this genre.

Overall this isn't a bad LP, but it sure ain't great either, and I rate it higher than I normally would simply because of the time it was made. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone as a first CV album and I would infact tell them to start a few years back.