Since 219, The Fair Attempts has been bringing its dystopian universe to life. Behind his gas mask, Finnish artist Timo Haakana, supported by Starwing who handles production and female vocals, defines his work as “the Black Mirror of industrial music” and juggles labels: industrial metal, dark electro, gothic inspirations... It doesn't matter, as long as he gives free rein to his emotions and it rocks! His new album, Null Guide, like the previous ones, is born from the artist's observations. More than ever, dystopias speak to our current world and, as Haakana explains, "civilization in decline. Civilization exists only as long as the strong are prevented from preying on the weak. Every time that boundary is violated, be it politically, socially, or culturally, the fabric holding society together frays. The result is not progress, but regression: a descent into barbaric chaos ruled by the most ruthless and violent exploiters of others."
With such a backdrop, one does not expect things to go well. Nothing's Gonna Be Alright tells us the first track, an electro-metal assault reminiscent of Murderdolls for its title, but above all of Pain's old albums for its biting and effective simplicity, its easy-to-remember musical formulas and, behind the catchy beats, its nuanced emotions. Right from the start, you want to shake your booty, but you're also gripped by the sadness and pessimism, whose simple and unadorned expression is all the more sincere. Nothing's gonna be alright.
The Fair Attempts then strings together tracks that all have an immediate impact. Don't look for anything cerebral or avant-garde: we're here to enjoy ourselves while remembering our imminent demise. Don't go thinking that Null Guide is just a formulaic product: there's a soul vibrating inside it. Haakana's voice is one of the project's great assets: eschewing traditional filters, he infuses his music with humanity, emotion, guts and sensitivity. Rage, melancholy, despair... His repertoire is varied, as are his influences (the EBM tension of Freedom's Just a Word You Say is followed by the very gothic tone of Ghost Within, still with the same sense of catchy chorus).
Null Guide manages to walk a fine line between despair and anger, which is reflected in music that is both haunting and physical, aggressive yet introspective. It is when everything comes together that the formula works best (the sinister Never Again, the highly cinematic Shadowplay, and the closing title track, which confronts the harshness of machines and riffs with human torment, prove more poignant than the quieter tracks at the end of the album). Is everything doomed, is everything in ruins? Yes. But The Fair Attempts hides a few smiles beneath the rubble: Anniversary of Our Destruction may sound like a strange celebration of the end of time, but it is also a personal reference to a wedding anniversary so disastrous that Haakana and his wife humorously named it ‘the anniversary of our destruction’.
So while you dance in what remains of our world, watching it collapse, you will find strange double comfort in Null Guide: first, there is the perfect soundtrack that responds to your anxieties and your desire to shake it all off, and then, underlying the rage and fatalism, there is also a form of resilience, of hope. Somewhere, The Fair Attempts seems to be telling us that it is through love and kindness that we will be able to overcome the apocalypse and that, with a little luck, we'll be able to laugh about it in a few years' time, when we celebrate many more ‘anniversaries of our destruction’. In short, we shake our booties, we shake our heads, there are big riffs, Null Guide satisfies our most primal instincts, but also has a touching depth.
