Following two casettes and a split earring (yes, you read that right) with local rippers Sadist, NYC cyberpunx L.O.T.I.O.N. finally graced us with a proper full-length a few months back. Their harsh, paranoid, industrial attack has never been so crisp, so affecting. They describe themselves as “G.I.S.M. meets Nitzer Ebb,” which is a good start in terms of sound, but there’s a lot more going on. I’d add that I hear hints of ’90s digital hardcore acts like Atari Teenage Riot and the Prodigy as well as a smattering of ’80s Australian industrial noise a la SPK or Severed Heads. This is all served up with the blinding fury and horror of classic Discharge.

The guitars rage and the electronic drums blast like futuristic weapons. As one might expect, the lyrics over this cacophony focus heavily on control, paranoia, and mechanization as the primary (death) drives of modern existence. The songs are repetitive in the best way possible: ritualistic and trance-inducing on the one hand, while aesthetically reproducing the mechanistic, pre-programmed horror of contemporary life on the other.

So is there room for hope in L.O.T.I.O.N.’s dystopian view of 21st century New York City? Maybe. On “Vid The Pigs,” the band offers what could potentially be considered a suggested course of action moving forward: “Technology is a weapon. Use it or be abused by it.”

Digital Control And Man’s Obsolescence is available now via Toxic State and La Vida Es En Mus.