What a dream I had the night. I was a Runner, and I'm not talking 'marathon.' Yes, I was running for my life-- a Runner in the "Logan's Run" sense. For you kids in the audience, "Logan's Run" was a television movie and series in the 1970s that was set in the not- so- distant future-- a time when rampant overpopulation meant that all people were to be exterminated when they reach the age of thirty. Some accepted their fate, others chose to take it on the lam; running from the government executioners, they tried to find a new freedom safe from the murderous youth. It's not hard to see why I had the dream at this point in my life-- I'll be thirty in ten months and I've been listening to Alec Empire's The Destroyer, an album that has the words "When You Reach Your Peak It's Time To Die!" (again with the exclamation points. What is it with these DHR guys?) featured prominently on the CD. A chilling thought indeed, seeing as how I'm probably a few years past my peak.

So there I was, a Runner, and if dreams were movies, The Destroyer would have been the perfect soundtrack. The vocal sample, "Nobody Gets Out Alive," could roll over the opening credits until the absurdly fast breakbeat comes in. The thunderous drum-n-bass of "Hard Like It's A Pose" would send me careening through futuristic corridors paneled in air- shaft steel as the tenacious bounty hunters trailed a few steps behind me. The distorted and oddly funky "Heartbeat That Isn't There" would play as I hid in an abandoned warehouse, my frantic pulse pumping to the beat of Empire's horribly overdriven, blood- red VU meters. Man, just thinking about it makes me want to go out and get a night light.

Noticibly different from Empire's Atari Teenage Riot work, The Destroyer moves away from the guitars- and- vocals song structure into the realm of experimental beats-- primarily blistering, distorted jungle with a few techno and hip- hop textures tossed in. I dig the lack of vocalizing here, primarily because there's no chance for anyone to make an ass of themselves. And the noise and heaviness grow on you, though it's still hard to know just when to put something this extreme on.

For those youngsters that dig menacing, misshapen grooves, Empire certainly knows how to program his sampler. Just don't take any of that "Reach Your Peak/ Time To Die!" business to heart, okay? Please?

-Mark Richard-San