After more than a decade of absence, when these guys from France hit the market with an album, I think you'll agree with me that listening to a new CD was a nice surprise. Taking their name by the treponema pallidum, a bacteria that causes the syphilis decease, they released their first self-titled opus in 1989 and won some fans, most of them having VOIVOD as their favorite band. This album was not only devastating - if I look at it now - but also had some nice music inside. They had a solid and clear image for their sound being as unique as it can be, exploring and reflecting an industrial zone with a hidden city terror inside. The bands we can put next to them are the universal and multi-dimensional phobos of VOIVOD with Dimension Hatross, with the iron and toxic sound of MINISTRY or KILLING JOKE. TREPONEM PAL went further with their sound by releasing another two nice albums 'till 1993 and managed to be the most well-known 'relative with Metal' band from France.
This return via Listenable Records keeps their industrial feel and they try to be more to-the-point by keeping the basics for every song. This gives a more 'ear friendly' tone with tracks that have the ambition to remain into your memory via their simplicity. The past is also alive here, check the re-recorded version of Mad Box (was in the Treponem Pal LP) plus the characteristic 'SWANS influenced voice of Marco Neves. Although Weird Machine starts a little bit strange with Dirty Dance, which was not the best choice for intro song, after some listening you will realize that it is not bad, being a little ironic. Same disposal goes to Planet Crash which is a killer song with a pretty chorus.
Hardore Massive Soldier will catch you instantly with its tempo, reminding me of GARBAGE! One of the best tracks off this album together with the hypnotic nightmare that is named Freak Machine. The work that has been done with the keyboards and the samples is really remarkable, with the production helping them elevating from the obscurity strange and hidden details.
The bad thing with this album is that after the self-titled track the quality hits bottom line. Tracks like Human Attack, Evil Angel and Sonic Life have not the freshness that the majority of the others have, with consequence the reducing of my interest. The last one is surely much, much better like a soundtrack of film noir. Nice song, having very good vocals being close to a ballad or something like that.
I'm glad that TREPONEM PAL are back and surely Freak Machine is not bad. The presence of Paul Raven from KILLING JOKE ( R.I.P.) in bass and Ted Parsons in drumming gives a bigger interest, but these four/five songs manage to reverse my primary pleasure. Their old friends have to listen to it; the others can check some tracks in their MySpace page. Except this, you can also find the re-release of Furytales via the Polish Metal Mind label, containing the first recordings. It's a challenge to enter their world and you will not be disappointed in the end.