Covenant
Synergy: Live in Europe

THE REVIEW

The Covenant (not to be confused with the eponymous Norwegian black metal band) are a Swedish trio that, along with their colleagues Apoptygma Berzerk and VNV Nation, can rightfully be placed in the elite of the genre ambiguously referred to as future pop.

The evident reminiscences inherited from the '80s synth-pop of Depeche Mode are reinterpreted by our guys in an electro-goth/EBM key.

"Synergy: Live in Europe," recorded in 2000 during the "United States of Mind" tour (probably the band's most representative work) is an excellent compendium of the good achieved by the trio in their early years of activity. Completely leaving out the debut album, the raw "Dreams of a Cryotank" (from 1994), the recording gathers tracks from "Sequencer" (1996), "Europa" (1998), and the aforementioned "United States of Mind" (2000), understandably giving more emphasis to the latter, the album that the tour was aiming to promote.

"Synergy" thus serves as an ideal best of the Scandinavian band, succeeding in the aim (unusual for an electronic music performance) of combining the reproduction of synthetic sounds with the energy typical of a live event.

The pieces are revisited in the light of the experience gained over the years and reedited with more modern sounds and more mature arrangements, so much so that at times they appear even better than the studio-recorded versions. However, one shouldn't expect a cold and mechanical execution, thanks mainly to the charisma of vocalist Eskil Simonsson (really on fire that night in Bochum), who not only delivers a flawless performance from every point of view but also reveals himself as a true stage animal, never satiated in urging and stirring the audience into a frenzy.

Behind him, at their respective consoles, Joakim Montelius and Clas Nachmanson, two war machines spewing beats and sounds unceasingly: The music of the Covenant is the Kraftwerkian locomotive that derails from the alienation of a world dominated by technology to reach the excesses of a nightclub. Saturated with techno culture, Covenant's music is a never self-indulgent music, serving to entertain both minds and bodies, the former stimulated by the captivating sound constructions and the intelligence of the melodic passages; the latter amused by the incessantly pounding rhythms, varied, pressing, and continuously evolving.

Compared to other artists in the scene, the Covenant demonstrate a deep knowledge of the tools of the trade, while a refined class and uncommon elegance complete the picture.

What more could one wish for? Perhaps a hint of originality. Because if there's one thing to point out to our guys (the only one), it is the criticism that their music seems excessively indebted to the art of Martin Gore and company, especially due to Simonsson's (beautiful) voice, very close in timbre, tone, and expressive intensity to that of the unparalleled Gahan: his vocal performance almost evoking at every single moment the daunting ghost of Depeche Mode, an essential point of reference for the music of our guys.

It starts with "Tour de Force" (from the latest album) and continues with classics like "Feedback" and "Flux" (both from "Sequencer"). There's no need to dwell on the setlist: the tracks, old and new, flow hard and catchy, boredom doesn't reside here, that's for sure, and vaguely more introspective moments ("Helicopter," for example) are mercilessly devoured by the rush of driving and animated tracks with decidedly catchy refrains (the incredible trio "Go Film," "Tabula Rasa," and "I Am"), culminating in the rousing "One World One Sky," a grand finale with all the trimmings, a true stadium anthem, enriched by a fleeting quotation of the Chemical Brothers ("Hey boys, hey girls, here we go!") to emphasize the love, never hidden moreover, for dance in its most flashily carefree form!

Time for encores: back on stage, overwhelmed by the clamor of a longing audience, with battle horses like "Wall of Sound," "Stalker," and "Babel" (especially the first, blatantly inspired by the syncopated and bombastic moods of the famous "Personal Jesus" by DM, reveals the inextinguishable magic of a sound conceived and forged to move the body and stir the hearts!): a trio, this one, called to conclude in the most fitting way possible these over 70 minutes (indeed 14 tracks presented!) that will hardly disappoint fans of hot beats, and that confirm the value of a band that ends up being a mandatory step for lovers of those sounds that answer to the name of future pop.

For those who know the Depeche Mode discography by heart and never get enough...