Gothy electro-rockers
Accessory, now down to founding member Dirk Steyer and some guests, return with the thoroughly average
Forever and Beyond, an album that desperately wants to party like it's 1989.
Skinny Puppy and
Nitzer Ebb fans in particular will find this combination of thudding beats, movie dialogue samples, and vintage sequencers entirely familiar. Steyer does at least make the attempt to give his songs bridges and choruses to break up the thumping monotony, but even pop-influenced tunes like "The Faint" and "They Come" are striking primarily because of how much they remind the listener of what pre-
Nine Inch Nails electro-dance sounded like, and how much better those old
Cabaret Voltaire records sound than this. The limited edition two-disc version adds four bonus tracks and half-a-dozen videos. ~ Stewart Mason