Lately I've noticed early signs that I may be getting old. True, I was born in the early 1970s, which doesn't make me nearly as old as say... the Rolling Stones, but the signs are showing up. First off, I'm starting to run into people that have never heard of Pac-Man. Also, my best friend's renegade older brother has had the same girlfriend for over a year, and I'm starting to notice how much more things cost than when I was a little tyke. I know I may still be in the "stage" of dying my hair purple, but I can't help thinking that I would enjoy Orgy much more if I were about 15.

Now that Orgy and the Korn's "Family Values" tour can get industrial music booked to stadium shows, one wonders really how subversive the whole thing is. The counterculture now has corporate backing, and the local mall with its Hot Topic stores are ready and willing to feed you anything to further alienate you from your parents as long as they make money at it. Orgy is a product of this greed. Not that this is the band's own desire, but they happen to have that glittering aggressive sound and personality that means cash to the executives that have the marketing dollars.

Orgy deserves credit for breaking a few molds. Like labelmates Korn, they utilize one of those wacky seven- string guitars, try to get away from the standard guitar/ bass/ drums sound, and are creative enough in the engineering department that you might, at times, think that the CD is skipping. All this, and the ability to shape their talents into exactly what every good spooky boy and girl wants to hear on their home stereo. While I admire them for that drive, something about it just doesn't stick.

Perhaps I was spoiled. I grew up before Ministry went metal, when Nine Inch Nails opened for Peter Murphy, and the Spice Girls was nothing more than the name of a movie in a suburban father's private video collection. All these things have changed, and gone with them is the sense of distinction and difference wherein lied the root of industrial counterculture. Maybe this sickly nostalgia is why I find Orgy's cover of New Order's "Blue Monday" one of the niftier tracks on the disc, but when the online Sears Roebuck catalog starts carrying an "industrial" section for household musical goods, I fully expect to find Orgy in it.

-Skaht Hansen

"Blue Monday"

[Real Audio Stream]