Sinthetic Alchemy is the debut album of North Fort Myers-based industrial band Khaos Faktory. The disc was originally released on April 20, 2008 on A Dark Philosophy Records. The first version of the album contained eight songs, plus two filler tracks provided by "Knife" Sotelo, and ran just shy of 28 minutes long. A remastered version titled Sinthetic Alchemy 2.0 was released via Khaos Records/JaDEd EyeZ Entertainment on February 9, 2009. A third (independently produced) version was released in 2013.
Tracks
The disc opens with "Welcome To The Faktory", a dark introductory track with guitarist/programmer Mike on vocals. It was the shortest song on the album and the only one to feature Mike on main vocals.
Track #2, "Cattle" is a re-recorded version of the 80-Proof Throwdown song of the same title from the latter's debut album Trailer Park Rhapsody. The song was co-written by "Beerkeg" Brandon Casterline of 80-Proof Throwdown in 2005. Main vocals are performed by Dave Spencer, with Mike singing briefly on the song's bridge.
Track #4, "Stoked" was the first song ever written by Khaos Faktory as a full band (KF was originally created as a solo project by Mike), and is the album's only song with former bassist Matt Pyro performing.
Track #5, an ambient song named "Scratch", is the only song featuring former lead guitarist Brian Freisen.
Track #7, "Liberated" was an updated and rewritten version of the original, from Khaos Faktory's forgotten demo EP Open For Business.
Tracks #6 and #10 were filler tracks created by Knife, ADP Records' Record Executive. They were added to the disc to expand the number of tracks from eight to ten so that, according to Knife, the album would be eligible to appear on the Billboard charts. The names of the tracks were "Radio Tuner (Interlude)" and "Bonus Outro". "Radio Tuner" was exactly that: the sound of an analog radio being tuned from station to station. "Bonus Outro" was a spoken-word track where a digitally altered voice can be heard saying "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist" in a high pitch.
Sinthetic Alchemy 2.0 removed the filler tracks and replaced them with a cover of Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist"(titled "Khaos A.D. [Refuse/Resist]) and a rough demo of a new song called "Struggle".
The 2013 independent re-release includes neither Knife's filler tracks nor the added tracks from 2.0 and instead features a cover of the Brainchild/Circle of Dust song "Descend".
Artwork
The album's front cover art was designed by Mike and later slightly altered by Knife. The scheme is a long series of binary code (in random, repeated order) layered over a black background. At the top of the cover is the band's name, and the album title is at the bottom. Across the center are black-and-white photos of the five band members that appeared on Sinthetic Alchemy (in the order of Spencer, Mike, Das, Pyro and Freisen), digitally altered to appear grainy.
The CD label art had a black background with the band's name and album title at the top. To the right was a small picture of Eliphas Levi's depiction of Baphomet. The rear cover also had a black background, and in the center was a red-and-black graphic of the Sigil of Baphomet with the track listing printed over the picture.
All of the artwork, save for the cover, featured Satanic imagery selected by Knife and unbeknownst by the band until the disc was released. None of the liner notes were included, nor was the band's website mentioned anywhere except on the disc itself. None of the band members (including Pyro and Freisen, who both left the band around the time of the release) were happy with the artwork; Spencer thought of it as cliche and unoriginal, and Mike didn't want Khaos Faktory to be perceived as a Satanic band, believing this would turn potential listeners and fans off to the band's music and open the gates for unwarranted criticism.
The artwork for Sinthetic Alchemy 2.0 was created from scratch. The cover photo depicts a hand smearing blood down a white wall. The inner artwork contained photos of the band members and liner notes written by Mike. McClellan designed the cover artwork and Das' then-girlfriend Sarai designed the inner layout.
The 2013 re-issue was packaged in a paper sleeve and used the cover artwork from 2.0 in black and white. The KF logo designed by McClellan was used on the back cover among the liner notes.
Track Listing
(original 2008 ADP release)
- Welcome To The Faktory
- Cattle
- Konflikted
- Stoked
- Scratch
- Radio Tuner (interlude)
- Liberated
- Turboslut
- All Good Things Must End
- Bonus Outro
(2009 Khaos Records release)
- Welcome To The Faktory
- Cattle
- Konflikted
- Stoked
- Scratch
- Liberated
- Struggle
- Turboslut
- Khaos A.D.(Refuse/Resist)
- All Good Things Must End
(2013 independent re-issue)
- Welcome To The Faktory
- Cattle
- Konflikted
- Descend
- Stoked
- Scratch
- Liberated
- Turboslut
- All Good Things Must End
External Links
- Khaos Faktory at ReverbNation http://www.reverbnation/khaosfaktory1