Press for Terminus Victor's Under Surveillance (2005)
From: Chicagoathome.com
DISCLAIMER: Listening to Terminus Victor’s Under Surveillance might aggravate those who believe that good bands should be signed to major labels.
No offense to the fine folks over at Innocent Words Records since they found a winner, but with that said, I should know that they have a gem on their hands in Terminus Victor. Under Surveillance is a complete and utter wall of sound, but guess what? TV is only a two man band. Yeah, I didn’t believe it either but it is true. The band merely consists of Scott Kimble and Don King. They handle everything you hear on each song.
With all of the bullshit bands that get signed to huge deals, it annoys me to hear a band like TV still on the indie scene. Well, at least for all of us, they are making music and it is widely accessible to go and hear.
Now back to the matter at hand. Under Surveillance is a strong effort with a lot of musical depth. At times, Under Surveillance sounds like Nine Inch Nails or Ministry and then at other times it sounds like Boiler Room, Sunna or One Minute Silence.
"Useless Abduction" and the "Mechanical Eye" will kick you right in the teeth from the get go, as the chugging guitars and rock-fueled; haunting atmospheric vocals should work to make you a fan within no time. You can tell that this album is completely real. It does not even have the slightest hint of any type of processed production or regurgitation.
Just go listen to "A Scream in the Park." Go ahead, I’ll wait. OK, I won’t really wait, but I hope you make the conscious effort to do so.
I’m going to go ahead and say that "A Scream in the Park" is the best song on the album, and it is also the longest. The last two minutes of the song are just instrumentations, and very good ones at that. No matter where you look on Under Surveillance, you will not be disappointed. "Your Nemesis" is TV’s bid at modern rock, the subtlety ambient "Hopelessly Domesticated" offers a different musical look and "Arctic Living" is full of stout double bass drumming.
When it comes to goth/rock/metal/industrial music, Terminus Victor might just be the sleeper band of the entire genre. Under Surveillance is a record that is just that, something that you should have (pardon the play on words) under surveillance.
From: Aiding & Abetting 11.05
Back when I was a youth and the world was a garden of earthly delights, there was a band called Arcwelder. I guess Arcwelder is still shambling about Minneapolis, but it's been a while since I've heard this particular mechanical punk sound.
Which isn't to say these boys are any sort of carbon copy. The drum machine alone is a huge change (Terminus Victor is two guys, and the programming completes the trio), but there's just a certain epic something that provides a pleasant echo to my ears.
The sound itself is sharp and technical, but not sterile. The guitars wail, the bass slides in next to the drum machine (as it should, as Scott Kimble handles both tasks) and the vocals have that half-AOR/half-industrial sound to them. Very cool.
So, yeah, maybe this is some sort of bastard child of Arcwelder and Bloodstar (a Swiss metallic industrial duo from years--many, many years--past). That's just fine with me. Loud, vaguely melodic and sweetly acerbic. Ah, yes, that's how I like my tea.
From: Decoy Magazine:
I'd like to give my congratulations to Scott Kimble and Don King for making industrial rock bearable again, and for doing it without completely stealing from Nine Inch Nails. If you thought this sound died with Stabbing Westward's Darkest Days or Orgy's Vapor Transmissons, you were wrong.
Under Surveillance is an album full of energy, vitality, ideas, and talent. The songs themselves are captivating plays upon bands such as Failure, Raunchy, Filter, Nine Inch Nails, and My Vitriol.
The band jumps between garbled bass lines and hard-hitting guitar riffs to effects-laden excursions and electronically-enhanced vocal battery with deft precision and ability.
~ Ben Rice
From: The Hub Weekly 11.10.05
Finding and apt comparison for Terminus Victor is problematic, because rock 'n' roll like this hardly exists anymore. That’s part of what I love about this band: they’re completely (and sometimes naively) unafraid of the fact that their music won’t exactly fit within their peer group, and they’re better for it. In the band’s bio, Don Gerard writes that TV aims to "explore/exploit the notion of combining man and machine," and this begins to reach the core of the band.
Comprised of Scott Kimble (bass/vocals/drum programming), Don King (guitar/tech support) and a drum machine, the duo (they might prefer "trio") performs in a hellfire of electronic drums and uber-distorted guitars, but there’s enough evidence in TV’s penchant for melody to complicate any concrete descriptions. Brands of industrial and metal intermingle with hints of Helmet and sometimes Faith No More (especially in the juxtaposition of hard rock and vocal harmony). TV covered Slint at last year’s Cover Up, which makes as much sense as anything I’ve been able to spit out so far.
With Under Surveillance, TV has never sounded so alive on a record. Part of this is a result of a knowledgeable producer in Matt Talbott, but a larger part lies in this batch of songs being the band’s best and most complex to date. TV’s second full-length is a mechanical explosion of guttural hard rock and melody, an informed musical monster that trumps its past and heeds light toward a still-strengthening future. Well done.
~ Zack Adcock
From: Openingbands.com 12.1.05
Review #1 - Todd Hunter
Bandmates long before the advent of Terminus Victor, Scott Kimble and Don King attack their instruments every time with the excitement of kids opening Christmas presents. Consequently, Terminus Victor is one of Champaign's most compelling acts, although difficult to market: a fact more frustrating because release of Under Surveillance was postponed one year by perfectionism, then an ice storm.
The album's greatest asset is its handicap: epic masterpiece "A Scream in the Park" clocks in at almost seven minutes. So vivid and arresting, it dwarfs what is immediately beforehand and afterward. It is the oldest here, while "Your Nemesis" is the newest here, and who would have thought Terminus Victor could be so catchy? With its sucker-punch-to-the-gut interjection, "I thought you should know / Your nemesis knows ... " it contains the year's hardest-hitting hook, and like a lot here, communicates more than it actually says.
"The Mechanical Eye" and "Arctic Living" are newer-sounding songs that lose a little of their live impact, yet stand on their own. "Just get out of debt!" resonates as a refrain in "The Mechanical Eye," and "Arctic Living" still hints at its live razzle-dazzle. "Useless Abduction" and "Chemical Relief" weight the beginning with a bridge to older-sounding Terminus Victor, non-stick electro-industrial with heart, before the requiem "A Scream in the Park" rains out most memory thereof. There is studio experimentation, too: "Hopelessly Domesticated" is an indulgent intro to "Viewers like You," a song arm in arm with the album title and theme.
Whether or not what hardcore fans had hoped for, Under Surveillance is a stark improvement over Mastering the Revels and allows Terminus Victor an up-to-date advertisement beyond its touring radius. Its only sin is setting the bar so high so soon.
Review #2 - Ashish Patel
How much metal do I hear that I can actually respect? I can count the bands on one hand. Well, Terminus Victor just took one of my fingers. With their newest release, Under Surveillance, Terminus Victor puts out an album that shouts the ballad of a world plastic and uncaring in a way that make your ears smile. From the very first track, this duo grabs your attention and never let go, pulling you in further and further until you find yourself in a cold and unfair world, only to wake up and find that it's still the one you started in.
The instrumentals this album boasts shine in nearly all of the tracks, with songs like "The Mechanical Eye" and "Your Nemesis" featuring deep, dark bass and blaring guitar work which complement each other so well that if they were played in any other context you would think they were cheating on each other. All of this is based on excellent drum work that lays a solid foundation throughout the entire album, but the most interesting part is that there is no drummer, all of the drum work is done by a drum machine. So I have this to say to you, dear lady: BEEP BEEP BIP BOOP BEEP. All in all, Under Surveillance is a solid album which, if you've caught the "I NEED TO ROCK OUT" bug, may just be the cure.
From: Verbicide Magazine 4.06
For what it’s worth, I’m not too familiar with Terminus Victor (this is their second release, and I never heard their debut album, Mastering the Revels, and therefore have no basis for comparison) and I don’t listen to much industrial rock, but I can say this — this is a fine record, and with all the comparisons I’ve read likening this band to Stabbing Westward, Filter, or Nine Inch Nails, I can say this vastly improves my opinion of the fading genre.
The second track, "The Mechanical Eye," is one of the best songs from any album I’ve heard in a while — a driving, fuzzy bass line, the catchy refrain, and the relentless vocals (with the repeated refrain of "you’ve got to get out of debt!") makes for a fun and memorable track that hearkens back to mid-’90s rock — mainstream alternative rock music you might have hid from your friends to save face, but secretly rocked out to shamelessly.
The nearly-seven-minute long epic, "A Scream in the Park," is also a standout — normally, I wouldn’t have the attention span to listen to a track that long from start to finish, but it’s an addicting song, and the fact that I was listening to it in my car seems appropriate — it would be a good addition to any road trip mixtape.
Scott Kimble is an adept songwriter, and the fact that this entire album is wholly the product of him and guitarist Don King is unexpected, as it possesses the depth of a recording produced with an entire backing band — I suppose utilizing drum programming and sampling adds to the fullness of the sound. I’m sure that diehard fans and fans of the industrial genre (and the bands I listed previously) will be satisfied with this release. However, I think that fans who aren’t particularly into bands such as NIN should still give this a try — you will likely be pleasantly surprised
~ Jackson Ellis
From: F5 Wichita 11.3.05
Terminus Victor drums to the beat of a different marcher
by Jedd Beaudoin
When Champaign, Ill.'s Terminus Victor hits the stage at Kirby's this Saturday night, don't feel surprised when you only see two guys on stage. You might have heard bassist/vocalist/drum programmer Scott Kimble and guitarist Don King online and come to believe that TV is a large five or even six piece band. But then of course you would be wrong. TV is a duo — and note the absence of the word "merely" there — on purpose.
See, Kimble and King had played together in a band called Hushtower through most of the '90s. When that outfit folded just before Y2K King and Kimble knew that they wanted to continue working together, even under a different name. Or with a different drummer. It really didn't matter.
"Finally, we wrote some material and I did some stuff on the drum machine. Eventually, we had this crazy idea that we'd just try it with me and Don and the machine. At first, it didn't seem like it went to well, so we went back and forth for about six months until it started to work out," Kimble recalled.
Early in 2000 the duo ventured out in front of its first audience, nervous of the outcome. "A lot of people cue visually off of the drummer, but people seemed to like it and I'd even say that drummers liked it more than most people, which I found very odd." Some of those sticksmen even came up to offer their services should Terminus Victor ever need someone behind the kit. Kimble kept a list but after that list grew into the double digits, he put it away, deciding that he and King had arrived at the official Terminus Victor lineup and sound.
As for TV's fan base? "We get metal and goth fans, hardcore punks and skater kids who are just old enough to come to shows, indie rockers and even people who are in their late 50s," he said. Kimble noted that the group's sophomore CD, Under Surveillance, not only marks a slight progression in sound but what he perceives as a marked improvement in his lyrics. Writing songs that deal with issues of paranoia and in the electronic age, he found himself eager to express himself more accurately than he had in the past. He added that although music has long given him an outlet to do just that spoken language has rarely afforded him that opportunity.
"On our first record, I thought there were a whole lot of boneheaded 'Yeahs' and 'Heys.' I didn't have that much to say back then. But I got better at the whole process of composing and putting lyrics on top of the song," he said. "That helped me find something to say.
"The hardest problem is lyrics. I've been a music fan since I was three years old. Music has never been a problem for me. The English language has been, though. I don't think that I'm a very good communicator or that I'm very good at communicating my thoughts. But, musically, it's different because I know that language better than anything. Not that I can describe how that happens. It's always been a struggle, whether lyrics or conversations."
Catch Terminus Victor on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Kirby's Beer Store with fellow three-man duo (Read: Two dudes and a drum machine) Darlin' Maudie. For more on Terminus Victor, visit Innocentwords.com or myspace.com/terminusvictor.
From the News Gazette 10.14.05
Terminus Victor: C-U duo's new album 'Under Surveillance'
By Kirby Pringle
Along the way to finishing up "Under Surveillance," Terminus Victor members Scott Kimble and Don King had a few hurdles to clear.
But neither ice storms nor floods nor other mishaps could keep them from getting it done - and done well. The new record is now available, and Kimble and King are marking the event with a CD release show at 10 tonight at the Cowboy Monkey in downtown Champaign.
"I am extremely pleased with it", Kimble says. "I'm really at a loss of words - other than to say I'm really happy with how it turned out."
"Under Surveillance" (Innocent Words, http://www.innocentwords.com/) is an intense, noisy, fuzz-rock attack. The album, the sophomore effort by Terminus Victor, was produced by Matt Talbott (Hum, Centaur) with all the songs written by Kimble, who plays bass and sings lead vocal. King provides the impressive guitar work. The backbeat is a provided by programmed drum machine.
The decision to work with Talbott was a no-brainer - not only is he a talented musician, but with his Great Western Record Recorders in Tolono, he has made a successful move into producing and engineering.
"We worked with Matt on our previous record (Mastering The Revels), and he knows what kind of aesthetic we’re going for and the sound we want," Kimble says. "Matt makes you feel really comfortable, and he’s easy to work with. And the studio is really spacious. It’s a great room to record in," he adds.
Kimble knew pretty much what he was looking for as far as sound when recording started. "I had a vision of what I wanted the record to sound like, just from the songs I had written for it," he says. "The more experience you have with different sounds, the more you hear in your head." Even though Kimble might show King the riffs he had in mind for a certain song, he left it up to the guitarist to add his own musical stamp. And no recording session is without changes – some big, some small – as musicians and producers put the nitty gritty down on tape (or hard drive, as is often the case these days).
Kimble, King and Talbott also had plenty of time to mull over "Under Surveillance." With Kings hectic schedule, a winter ice storm and spring flood at the recording studio, the album took about a year from start to finish. "It took about a year off and on to record the whole mix," Kimble says. "We had some impediments along the way – Don’s schedule, the flood and so on. But after a whole year’s worth of time you really kind of know whether you like something or not."
Terminus Victor formed in 2000 and has toured throughout the Midwest. At this point, the band is concentrating on weekend shows in support of the new album, and Kimble hopes to do an expanded tour in the spring. In the meantime, he is continuing to write songs – which usually come to him in the wee hours of the morning. "It’s usually between 1:30 and 4:00 in the morning," Kimble says – without the trace of a yawn. "Sleep is really overrated. You can’t get anything done when you’re sleeping."