Swiss band The Young Gods haven't released any new material for the past five years, being far too busy building their own studio, breaking in a new drummer and writing their forthcoming album, expected in the Autumn. Nevertheless the extended sabbatical appears to have been worthwhile for, as a first listen to The Young Gods, the single "Lucidogen" is quite impressive. Imagine Front Line Assembly divested of their mock-scary growling vocals and dusted over with a sprinkling of blank European alienation and you'd get somewhere near the latest model Young Gods sound. Even finer are the two remixes that pad out the running time, which ditch almost all of the original tune in favour of synthesised insect noises and banging, Orb's "Assassin"-like techno respectively. More please.

Following on from the excellent "Lucidogen" single, Young Gods' fifth long player could be described as the acceptable face of industrial. Certainly, compared to the grinding electronic noise proffered by the likes of Cubanate and Front Line Assembly, "Second Nature" is positively psychedelic. The Young Gods sound majors on swirling synthesisers and clattering percussion tracks, happily avoiding the comedy growling so beloved of many of their contemporaries. Which makes "Second Nature" an enjoyable enough way to fritter away an hour, but over the course of proceedings Franz Treichler's distinctively European vocals tend to grate a little, and I'm reminded of the fact that it was the genuinely ground-breaking and experimental remixes that offered the most entertainment on that single. But if Young Gods are your bag, rest assured that it’s hard to imagine them delivering an album more crushingly competent than this.

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