THE DRONE COLLECTIVE

On The Drone Collective 6LA8 allow their sound get deeper and grittier. Sticking to their usual sound, this album is equal parts post-rock and various electronic forms.

Compared to some of 6LA8's other albums, the reverb is a bit higher here and so is the western influence. Some of these tracks, especially the opener "Our Undivided Attention To Matters of Divine Importance" have a guitar tone that sounds a lot like Earth on their Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light series. It's an okay song that gets much more interesting as it builds its spacey phasing electronic background, but the spoken word sample is rather distracting and seems to serve no other purpose except to annoy. Fortunately, this marks the end of spoken word usage on this album

The Drone Collective is an album of relative diversity for 6LA8. "Sir, I Had No Need For That Hypothesis" dives headfirst into Neurosis' post-metal territory and "Those Are My Bombs You're Talking About!" is a fast-paced track with echoed percussion and fuzzy guitar that is similar to a lot of indie post-punk and early goth bands, except with no vocals. Besides the varying genres of this album, the production sounds much deeper and cavernous.

There are still the cliche post-rock tracks and the dance-inspired electronic rock songs. "Everybody is a Paragon, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?", though it sounds like a song that would be made for a car commercial, is an enjoyable foray into the more danceable sound of the most accessible Nine Inch Nails selections. The album ends on a high point, "You Do Know You Could've Been Deleted.", which is dreamy yet industrial droning with distant cosmic glimmers that sounds like a mix between Maurizio Bianchi and Hydrus.

Like most of 6LA8's work, The Drone Collective is mostly suitable for fans of post-rock who enjoy some electronic spice, but from all that I've heard of this group I'd have to say that this is one of their most pleasant sounding and interesting albums. Even if there are some cliche moments or moments that exist only to burden, there is plenty for fans of relaxing music to enjoy.