What would become a bigger clubhit on the national EBM and industrial dance floors with a possible single release: ‘Stronghold’ of Angels & Agony’s new CD or ‘Stronghold’ as first single of The Peoples Republic of Europe’s new album Monopoly of Violence? Probably the first one, but this doesn’t weaken the fact that this CD starts off with a nice explosive and heavy pounding industrial track with a very energetic drive which goes on during most of the 70 minutes of the entire album. This new cd of The Peoples Republic of Europe, which now has violence, struggle and war as general theme, shows the musical skills and the production technical abilities of Pieter Winkelaar have developed further which has resulted in more tight song centered tracks on this new CD Monopoly of Violence. Not a bad idea. This way your music will get spinned more in the clubs. Back to the tracks: you thought ‘Stronghold’ was harsh? ‘Kracht Durch Krieg’ goes even further and together with ‘Antiglobalist’ and ‘Riot Squad’ these are the potential dance floor smashers of this album. The listener gets no moments of tranquility in the shape of rusty, squeeking and grinding dark ambient tracks like on the excellent previous album ‘Juche’, but this time gets 12 pieces of industrial mayhem that shatters one’s ears while the music stilistically moves in the realms of industrial, gabber and powernoise. It isn’t until the end of the CD the listener can chill in utter dark and sinister soundscape entitled ‘Leviathan’. On this cd there is a nice gimmick with the ‘Pulling on the Boots’ cover which originates from the soundtrack of this violent movie dealing with racism and nazi skins called ‘Romper Stomper’. This new cd is a major step forward for The Peoples Republic of Europe. Lover sof Winterkaelte, Genocide Organ, Mono No Aware and Xotox get a very nice CD with Monopoly of Violence, comparable in quality to the aforementioned acts.