Metal and Electronic music are, more often than not, unlikely bed-fellows, and it's often hard to think of the two being blended to create music that works incredibly well. However, it's not unusual to find bands that mix these two styles together and pull it off really well. PAVILLON ROUGE, based in Grenoble France, are one such band; their brand of Industrial Black Metal is laced with plenty of New Wave influences that often work very well, and their latest, sophomore record, "Legio Axis Ka", is a prime example of Metal and Electronic being paired together to create something interesting and original.

 The opening track, "Prisme vers l'Odysee", opens with some fast, dark and powerful Electronic music, which gathers speed until it sounds not unlike a tremolo picked guitar line. The harsh, rasping vocals that go over the top of this music, and the actual guitar lines that accompany it, work really well with the music, and it ends up being a great track. It sounds every bit as ferocious as any other Black Metal song, without having to resort to depending on guitars and drums for the "heaviness" of the track. "L'enfer se souvient, l'enfer sait" is driven by an Industrial Metal guitar line and works very well. The vocals sound great alongside the music, and it definitely gives a whole different dynamic to the drum and bass that is present throughout most of the track. "Mars Stella Patria", with its fierce, military beats, is another powerful and incredibly catchy piece of D 'n' B laden Industrial Black Metal. This album is getting increasingly good as it progresses, and this is the strongest song on the record thus far. "A l'Univers" begins to utilise the guitars a bit more to bring in some more hooks from that side of the bands sound. Of course, it is still a heavily Industrial track, but there are definitely some killer riffs to be heard on this track. The vocals soar over the top of this great music and really make this track sound, for lack of a better term, epic. "Aurore et Nemesis" is a much more mid-paced song, with a thick opening bass line, that has some cool guitar lines to contrast the atmospheric music that makes up the base of this track. "Droge Macht Frei", one of the albums most memorable tracks, consists of the strongest guitar work on this record, all backed by some powerful Drum and Bass, which itself is steeped in atmosphere. It's a song filled with hooks, and stands as one of this records most memorable offerings. Track number seven, "Kosmos Ethikos" is a great Electronic track that is absolutely mesmerising at points. It completely draws the listener in and holds your interest throughout, making it one of this records best songs. The spoken word sections that make up the vocals on this track blend very well with the music, and help to add to the overall atmosphere of it. The albums penultimate track, a cover of "Notre Paradis" (or "Gangsters Paradise" in English) by Hip Hop legend COOLIO. In my opinion, the best covers in the world take a song and completely re-work it in a totally different style, essentially leaving their mark on it. In this regard, this is a fantastic cover, complete with plenty of Ambience and harsh, acidic vocals which make it just as catchy and memorable as the original. The albums closing track, "Klux Santur", sounds pretty ferocious. All the elements in the bands sound are brought together to create a hair-raisingly good cacophony of sounds that really helps to finish this album off nicely.

Although this album will not appeal to your average Black Metal purist, it's nonetheless a great album. It's so idiosyncratic and etches itself indelibly into the listeners' memory that, even if this is not considered the best Black Metal record of the year, then at least it will be the most memorable. Personally, as a fan of both Black Metal and Electronic music in all its forms, I loved it.