|  | DJ Alixir's verdict:
Stigmata are Chris Liebing , frontman for the infamous "CLRetry" label (check the Chris Liebing "Volume 6" review in the singles section) and Andrew Wooden (several successful releases on German label "Jerk Records").
They have so far released 9 predecessors to this album, named "1/10" straight up to "10/10" which is this current offering. I'm wondering if this is the final instalment from Stigmata (which would be a shame) or whether they will continue with future releases.
Stigmata purvey a style that your mother surely wouldn't like, they are dark, brooding and go full guns on pretty much every track, leading you into their distorted reality of a world. If that club in Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 had a DJ, you can assure yourself the DJ would be spinning Stigmata's tracks all night long. Their compositions flaunt a certain experimentation with sounds that like they have been crafted from scratch, it's a technique you can hear in the percussion and lead riffs throughout.
You often question yourself as to whether it's a high hat, snare or synth you're hearing, or whether they've simply sampled a similar sound and moulded it into an instrument you recognise.
"Samael" is a track that you wouldn't find out of place in a club like Tresor. It's very percussive and has a repetitive natured bassline grooving away beneath the pounding, marching beat.
The introduction of a lead line (I'm not sure whether it's a voice or an animal growling!) carries the tracks progression through nicely, it constantly morphs in and out of itself hypnotically.
This track is one of the more minimal productions of the album but still calls out to be played within a set somewhere. "Sarayantanas" displays excellent echoes of the industrial techno genre. This track is full on, pounding German techno like you haven't heard before, it's been engineered to sound dirty but is clean on the ears as well.
An atmospheric clanging, metallic lead pulls you into the abyss and does not let you go, it's meant to be one of those "in your face" tracks, it certainly wants to stand up and be counted. Even when this track breaks down, it carries on to induce tension on the floor, soaring noises filter up and down whilst something like a heart monitor can be heard in the background (or did I imagine that?!). "abraxis" plays as if it was made from organic sounds, now this I will find very hard to describe indeed!
You'll know what I'm talking about when you hear it. It's almost like Liebing and Wooden have sampled some kind of "Horror Beast" and thrown it into the stereo field as a loop! Marry this with slickly layered percussion and more clanging metallic menagerie and you've got the general idea!
"10/10" to me would rate as a very close "10/10". There's a wide spectrum of choice throughout the tracks, and if full on pounding techno appeals to you (some tracks have found a well deserved home within my sets), then "10/10" will definitely find a home within your collection.
The one odd thing I did notice was out of the tracks I mixed together, they are either all the same speed or a very tiny percentage of bpm apart from each other. Maybe this has been done to help out learner DJs? I've never seen that on an album before!
Track Listing: A1 Kronos
A2 Phobos
B1 Abraxis
B2 Canaima
C1 Abigor
C2 Samael
D1 Saragatanas
D2 Daath
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