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Title: Philadelphia City Paper
Review: "Johnnygoth" Yorio, guitarist for locals Stendhal, recently described their sound as "sonic terrorism." While that may conjure images of the sort of antitonal distortion fests that drive the pulse of the hardest industrial tunes, Stendhal's fury is a heck of a lot more musical than that. Their inaugural disc, Impure, is remarkably un-digital, with a heavy horror influence. Distorted bass, spidery guitar giggles and a percussion array that includes such demented additions as a bent-up one way sign and a provocatively miked water cooler bottle help yield the astonishing result of an ambitious resurrection and update of a sound that peaked in early '80s London. It's a welcome break from over-programmed, over-sampled "underground" music that's never two steps away from techno, and from so-called alternative music that's hashed from a static formula unchanged since 1989. Evocative and infectious, Impure has a beguiling energy that demands your attention.
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