Oh look, KeeN has a new release. To be honest, this newsflash didn't manage to give me some kind of extatic feeling. Beeing known with their first single ('Nailing Keen') that totally didn't appeal to me at all, I didn't expect much of this "Dying Life" EP. But... after only two minutes of a total of 28 minutes, I decided to recall my preverious opinion!

Between the release of the first single (April 2003) and the release of this EP (August '05) this Italian band didn't waste any time! They manage to reach the finals of the highly rated 'I.Tim Tou Festival' in 2003 and 2004 and one year later they were chosen to support Marilyn Manson on the Italian show of the 'Against All Gods' tour. But, and this is more important for me, musically they have taken one (or maybe two or three?) big step(s) forward! While 'Nailing Keen' (2003) sounded a little bit flat and uninspiring (specially the vocals!), they show us with this new release that they have finally found a perfect balance between metal, electro, EBM and even a little bit of melodic black metal! 'Swallow' opens with an EBM likely intro, but after 20 seconds the metal side of this band wakes up and sounds ready to destroy. The song that follows sounds pretty catchy, and can be recommended to both gothic and metal fans! 'Dancing With Desire' could go about the girl next door if you live in my house (since her name is Desiré, which is a normal Dutch name yes!). I don't think these guys know her anyways, so better lets talk about the music now. The song can be described as a mixture of rock 'n roll, industrial and even a little punk here and there. It has a very powerful start, but in the end this song turns out to be an easy listening one. Something I like to mention here is the vocals. As I mentioned before, I didn't like them at first, but this Shirley person shows a huge progression on this record and specially on this song! 'Anthem of a Little Child' is lyrically the best song of this record and sonically the most experimental one. A spicy cocktail of 50% EBM/electro, 30% gothic and 20% metal is a good way to describe it. Some people will love it, some will not. I do! 'Mechanical Rusting Doll' is more metal based again. Musically it is definitely one to remember, and names like Division Alpha and Latexxx Teens come in mind immidiately. People who know me are familiar with the fact that I absolutely love Division Alpha, so they will understand that I have nothing bad to say about this song! 'Dying Life' is the title track of this EP. Its a good song again, in vein of the other songs of the record. Industrial and EBM are the foundation, decorated with metal and lots of creativity. Decent song musically again. The EP ends with the only song written in Italian, although the title 'Sleeping Beauty' doesn't tell you that immidiately. This is a song with lots of orchestral influences and reminds me in a way to the Vigilante song 'Before'. This song is taken from the Original Soundtrack of the short movie 'La Bella Addormentata' (for a translation just have a look at the track title) and appears on this record as a bonus track. Well people, now you expect some final words of me as usual? Lets do it different this time! This band has tought me a lesson: do not waste any time! Fans of Latexxx Teens, Kubrick, Division Alpha, and as well fans of bands like Marilyn Manson and HIM: write shirley@keen-zone.com!

Vote: 90 / 100

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