Too Bad But True

Fever

Unlike their Digital Hardcore label mates Atari Teenage Riot or EC8OR, Berlin's Fever don't speed by at 200 bpm in a blizzard of manic sound bites and rabid drum machines. Instead they favor midtempo hip-hop with gruff, deliberate vocals and the distortion turned way up--everything's completely saturated, as if the needle had been in the red during the entire recording session. Din-S.T. and Paul P.M. are determined to sound scary, though maybe their self-absorbed seriousness is the only point. Still, there's no denying the impact of dense, resolute tracks like "Black Around Me" and "Distill Your Brain." Fever aren't that different from the other Digital Hardcore bands after all: they just prefer clobbering you slowly and methodically rather than quickly. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

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