SCRAPE! I’d compare this musical experience to riding in a car with someone that refuses to shut off their windshield wipers on a clear day. SCRAPE! SQUEAK! CHIRP! The women of NOCTURNE have created a startling and original musical statement…for 1995. Somewhere between L7’s radio fare and WHITE ZOMBIE’s last couple of sample-heavy platters lurks the musical epiphany that is “Guide to Extinction”. Throw in a bunch of that hokey strip mall darkness and evil shtick from TV shows like “Charmed” and you’ve got a bingo. Despite collaborations with renowned industrial artists like PIGFACE and tours with the likes of ENTOMBED and KING DIAMOND, this band has still found a way to bury the needle on the blandometer.

I don’t think that folks like Tommy Victor or Justin Broadrick should lose any sleep over the prospect of NOCTURNE swiping the industrial metal crown any time soon. Tracks like “I Lie” just grate, grate, grate with plastic songwriting and stylized vocals buried beneath gobs of programmed synth frosting. "Indulge" is another highly underwhelming piece, complete with humdrum riffs and high school lyrics. As a whole, "Guide to Extinction" wouldn’t pass for heavy if it was strapped to a concrete median strip and hurled through your bedroom window. And all this from the same town that brought us REO SPEEDEALER. Sad but true. Considering some of the remarkable platters in this exciting genre that I've had the pleasure to spin recently like "Scorpio Rising" and "Houses of the Molé", I find it all the more puzzling that bands like this don't up their ante a little. This CD is an old lady, excruciatingly fumbling for the cashier’s exact change while you grit your teeth for ten minutes. Take your twelve bucks and buy an attractive planter or paper clip dispenser instead.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.nocturne.cc

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