Classic Review: Strychnine - The Utopia Project (Industrial Strength Records 027)

There is the rumor that the Industrial Strength sub IST had its initials as a stand-in for "Industrial Strength Trance". It's just a rumor. And after all, there were no releases on IST that belong to the "Trance" genre of electronic music.
Industrial Strength artists *did* do Trance though; but it was a rare, rare, rare occasion.
And this happens to be one of them.
I guess, back then, IS wanted to test if they can "break through" in the Trance market, too - after conquering the Gabber world already. After all, many other "formerly" HC acts did the same - Hardsequencer, Charly & Theo, Interactive... just to name a few.
And I can imagine these tracks on here ended up in quite a few Trance playlists.

Of course, the core of this release's content are the belligerent tracks "Sacrifice" and "Utopia". But even these have more "Trance-y" elements than usual. And then there are two more mellow mixes of these tracks. And, in all honesty, it sounds like the less aggressive tracks are the originals, and the gabber-maniac food is actually the remix.

Either way - it's an interesting entry in the Industrial Records catalogue all the way.

Tracklist:

Strychnine - The Utopia Project

A1 Utopia 5:28
A2 Utopia (Trance Mix) 5:32
B1 The Sacrafice 5:51
B2 The Sacrafice (Dissonant Energy Mix) 6:20

https://www.discogs.com/release/71734-Strychnine-The-Utopia-Project