FANOE is the one-man project of Klaus Fanoe from Switzerland. Having started writing in 2003, Empire Dirt is FANOE's debut release.
At first listen, the album sounds very heavily influenced by Nine Inch Nails. The first several tracks, "Alive", "Take it Away" and "Naked", really demonstrate this style. This may be enough for most to write off FANOE as a NIN clone, but upon closer attention, you can see that there is more to this album.
"Empire Dirt", the fourth track, really starts to show a more unique style to FANOE. "Invisible", a great song, mixes hard guitar driven rock and mellow moments together, somewhat reminiscent of the band Skold.
The middle of the album is more straight-up industrial rock, with songs like "Battlefield" and "SueƱos". There's even some acoustic guitar thrown in behind the gritty vocals.
Overall, Empire Dirt is an admirable debut album with quality tracks and no filler. Though some tracks are a bit too influenced by NIN, all bands start out listening to their favorite artists for inspiration and have to shape and mold their own sound. From what is present on this album, FANOE is well on their way.
-legion
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