The last time Bill Leeb released a solo album was in the mid-80s. Over the past forty years, the artist has traversed the world of electronic and industrial music, touching on every genre through his various projects (Frontline Assembly, Cyberaktif, Noise Unit, Delerium, a bit of Skinny Puppy between 1985 and 86...): industrial metal, EBM and even dubstep and synthwave have all been ‘Leebised’ with FLA alone. However, solo doesn't mean isolated: behind the scenes, Rhys Fulber is never far away, handling production and recording with Dream Duo, while the faithful Greg Weely takes the sound engineer's chair. Even the artwork, by Allen Jaeger, is strongly reminiscent of Dave McKean's work. Leeb has also surrounded himself with guest stars to take us into his dystopian nightmare, so he won't be alone in prophesying the collapse of our world.
Model Kollapse: the title refers to the moment when Artificial Intelligences will only learn from content generated by AIs themselves, eventually degenerating, and Leeb questions this moment, when so many aspects of our lives are now based on these intelligences, and the chaos this would cause. The tone of the album is set and its first track, Demons, sets the musical tone: familiar, with a dose of EBM testosterone boosting the familiar cyborg ghost voice and that cold but unstoppable sense of groove with a proven power to fascinate.
The textures and formulas may be familiar, but Model Kollapse takes a malicious pleasure in going off in all directions. There's the bridge between past, present and future that is the hallmark of this pioneer who, without forgetting his roots, has always been able to evolve with the times (this was already evident with Cyberaktif's comeback earlier this year), but above all this desire to dabble in everything. Bill Leeb knows how to harden the sound (Pinned Down and its indus metal guitars, the menacing heaviness of Infernum and Fusion and their cyberpunk shadows a la Gesaffelstein - we're flirting with EBSM), twist it into a psychedelic nightmare between William Gibson and Skinny Puppy (Neuromotive) to better soothe it later, it doesn't forget to make you dance (the frenetic Terror Forms and the lighter energy of Muted Obsession, featuring Shannon Hemmett from Actors), before finally losing yourself in the company of Mimi Page in the melancholy contemplations of Erosion Through Time.
That's where Model Kollapse's apocalyptic visions end, probably on a rooftop, probably facing ruins, probably in the rain (we know that's where the tears get lost in time, don't we). To the listener, Bill Leeb's solo album might sound like a synthesis of Frontline Assembly: the artist's greatest strength remains his constant appetite, his desire to touch everything, to graft everything onto his synthetic universe. Bill Leeb doesn't stagnate in a mortifying pastism, but he never forgets his roots, and Modele Kollapse is a new masterclass from the boss, if not a particularly surprising one.
