Massive Ego – The New Normal

When grief and anger become music

Album facts

Release Date: February 11th, 2022
Label: Out Of Line
Genre and tags: Dark Wave, Electro Pop, Gothic, Massive Ego, Synth Pop
Discogs: Not avail­able yet
Partially sounds like: Priest, Blutengel
Final score: 4.6 stars
Matching album cliches: 0 / 7

Reviewing the EP 'The New Normal' star­ted as a quick little Radar. It's only 5 tracks and for that we usu­ally don't write a full review. However, I was so excited about the EP and had writ­ten so much that I decided to make a com­plete review out of it. After this intro­duc­tion you can surely already ima­gine that this is a spe­cial release. Or let's bet­ter say an abso­lutely gor­geous release!

The new Massive Ego

You Will Comply: The first single and at the same time the open­er of the new EP 'The New Normal' is a rough synth pop song with indus­tri­al affin­it­ies. With a polit­ic­al top­ic like this, this is essen­tial and gives the song You Will Comply the neces­sary ser­i­ous­ness. The beat is super crisp and you imme­di­ately want to stomp on the dance floor and get rid of all the pent-up frus­tra­tion and energy. The bridge is super mel­an­chol­ic and some­how brings a tear to my eye every time. To me, the bridge sounds like a music­al faint­ing feel­ing. Strong feel­ings, strong song!

Fake Star: The bass­line is super groovy and the first thing I love about the song. With a lot of dynam­ics in the loud­nesses and tem­pos, the song builds up ten­sion. The chor­us sounds like a nos­tal­gic 80s new wave clas­sic. BTW: I find the return to pure elec­tron­ics very wel­come. Watch the offi­cial music video (with lyr­ics) 'Fake Star' now.

Dead Eyes Black: The song 'Dead Eyes Black' is the abso­lute standout on the EP. The intro is strongly remin­is­cent of the Swedish band Priest. A col­lab­or­a­tion would be a guar­an­teed hit (cough cough, hid­den hint).

After the first few seconds it is imme­di­ately clear that the song was made with a cer­tain ser­i­ous­ness. Marc's voice is very clear here and sounds decis­ive. The synth melody in the verse prom­ises a cold shiver down the spine. In the chor­us, the ten­sion is sud­denly released and we get a catchy part that is easy to sing along with. But on the way to the second verse, there is again this mood drop that hits you in the stomach.

So mood-wise it goes up and down, but the song remains dance­able through­out. This song is ded­ic­ated to the deceased dog 'Squeaky'. Dear Marc and Oliver, we feel with you and mourn your loss.

Look into your dead eyes
I see straight into the black
you’re lack­ing in emotion
I don’t get noth­ing no noth­ing back
Lyrics from 'Dead Eyes Black' by 'Massive Ego'

The Vampires Wife: In con­trast to the rest of the songs on the EP 'The New Normal', the song is alto­geth­er calmer. The mood is dark and the atmo­sphere is close to a goth hor­ror movie. Sound-wise, I have to draw a com­par­is­on here some­where between Blutengel and Priest. At least there are the same music­al roots in the ton­al­ity and song structure.

I love the artwork concept

Not Without Consequence: The (unfor­tu­nately already) last song on the fant­ast­ic EP 'The New Normal' is a fast club hit, which again sounds typ­ic­al like Massive Ego. With a hard driv­ing beat and a super catchy chor­us, I can already hear the fans singing and dan­cing along to this one at future concerts.

Do we accept the new normal?

An EP with this strong song qual­ity in our niche is more than unusu­al and sounds more like a 'best of'. I'm already look­ing for­ward to the upcom­ing album by 'Massive Ego' and hope, without build­ing up pres­sure now, that the band hasn't set the bar too high for them­selves here. I don't know to what extent the two new (or return­ing) band mem­bers Lloyd Price and Porl Young are respons­ible for the com­pos­i­tions. But if so, this is a really strong com­bin­a­tion of four cre­at­ive minds from whom I would def­in­itely like to hear more.

But until then, we can enjoy the EP 'The New Normal'. And please, please buy the EP phys­ic­ally, on Bandcamp or wherever you get your music from. This is not an advert­ise­ment! I recom­mend this one out of 100% con­vic­tion. I already pur­chased the lim­ited edi­tion with t‑shirt when it was announced and I'm already full of anti­cip­a­tion. Now buy this dark jew­el too.

Watch the official teaser for 'The New Normal'

https://youtu.be/HhunMrvRflE

Track by track rating for: Massive Ego – The New Normal

Massive Ego – The New Normal

You Will Comply

Fake Star

Dead Eyes Black

The Vampires Wife

Not Without Consequence

Recommend

(all)

Weak

(none)

4.6

Typical album cliché list for: Massive Ego – The New Normal