Evol Intent – Era of Diversion

I’ve bought quite a few albums this year, particularly as I’m listening to more and more dubstep. Hell, I’ve got some CDs in my pile of recent purchases that I haven’t even listened to properly yet, including some from an ad noiseam order I placed a year ago.

Part of the reason for this is Evol Intent‘s new album Era of Diversion. It’s easily the best album I’ve heard released this year and I’ve pretty much had the album on repeat since buying it.

Although they’re known primarily for hardstep drum and bass due to their prior discography and some awesome remixes (which is where I first heard of them from a dnb mix album), they’ve really diversified for Era of Diversion. The album seems to cover everything that I’m enjoying at the moment; glitch/IDM, breakcore, apocalyptic hip-hop and drum and bass. There are even chiptune and digital hardcore metal elements across the CD. Despite this genre-hopping they manages to avoid any clichés, particularly the dubstep bass wobble which so many producers seem to be relying on. The album flows really well building up to Evol Intent’s signature hardstep sound towards the tail end of the tracklisting.

All in all, it’s a slickly-produced release and I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in the genres I mention above. Dogs on Acid have a short interview with them from last year where they talk briefly about this album, their production techniques and include a storming hardstep mix as a bonus.