Dead Heretic

This was the album to start it all for me. I have, despite the look you get from the social presence of Dead Heretic, a total, all-consuming obsession with all things cyberpunk. And that started decades after I was a young person living in the midst of the New Wave and cyberpunk peak. Then I stumbled upon the self-titled album by Scandroid and my life turned neon.

Scandroid is a complete and well-rounded dive into the neon pools of Neo Tokyo, post-human punks and more. If you are not into 1980's inspired synths with wickedly cool vocals, you had better avoid this one. Even my Chinese friend, who had never heard cyberpunk before, exclaimed Scandroid was “so old”. She was stunned when I told her it was released in 2016.

The fifteen tracks give you everything from synth-mad instrumentals, soaring vocals riding on jetstreams of neon synth and even cover of Shout by Tears for Fears which is even better than the original. Amped up beats and awesome vocal, some fed through some really 1980's robot voice filters, are awesome. “Salvation Code” is one of the best tracks among a group of massively wild songs and it really gives a taste of Klayton's vocal abilities. “Neo-Tokyo” just ramps that quality right into the stratosphere. Great beats, savage rhytms and cybernetic vocals slap you right in the middle of a night club full of cyborgs. I love every gritty, hi-tech-low-life moment of this album.

Scandroid is so good, I will sing along to it. You might be wondering a huge, “So the f*** what?” I never sing. Not even in church. My voice is so unbelievably bad I make Cacophonix from Asterix the Gaul sound like Adele on her best day. Let's just say “hideous” is not an exaggeration. Yet, listening to tracks like “Pro-bots & Robophobes” just makes me want to go all karaoke on it.

Klayton has helped surge the cyberpunk revival to new heights with this one album. Scandroid has really helped lead a path for other cyberpunk musicians and it was this album that got me to notice the genre as a whole. It is soaked in the spiritual wetness of the 1980's and pixelated cyberpunk games. Tron would have sounded just right with this type of vibe as its soundtrack.

For the vinyl heads among you Heretics, the triple (you read that right!) LP is still available at the time I wrote this!