Esplendor Geometrico – “Veritatis Splendor” – [Geometrik Records]

Repetitive, busy drum machine beats over spaced-out sampler vamping with a dark industrial flavor. Almost all tracks are walking tempo and feature a prominent backbeat with Latin elements. When it works best, like on tracks 2 and 5, it creates an interesting juxtaposition between the very mechanistic drum track and the extended sampler frobbing. Some tracks, track 3 in particular, seem like something that could have been on the B side of Ministry’s Land of Rape and Honey, except Veritatis Splendor was released in 1994, nearly 6 years after the Ministry album.

Esplendor Geometrico is a Spanish industrial band, they’ve been active since 1980, have a long discography, and are still making sounds. Since 1994 they have been a duo consisting of Arturo Lanz and Saverio Evangelist. A listen to their discography on their website at http://www.geometrikrecords.com/esplendor shows that Veritatis Splendor is a departure from their typically noisier and harder-edged sound.