Ok so what do we have here?Simply one of the best bands of the new scene. Athamay is one of the best first-appearing bands of the 90s. Their first album PLEASURE OF SIN became a massive cult release and spawned a series of club favorites, featuring the band's unique blend of electro-dark, separating itself from both the guitar-driven goth rockers and the fast-beat EBM acts. With an atmospehere of its own, and lyrics dealing the sinister themes of S&M, sung by the beautiful voice of Jess (although some claim it is more of a narration than singing-- I have to say merely that her singing goes beyond all 'compatible', 'accepted' performances). The song are built on keyboards mostly, driven by drum programming and relentless bass in the background.

The opening songs are three punches in a row:the haunting "Dreams" where everything gets in the face of the listener: the dark beats, the icy synthesizers, the malevolent lyrics and the vocals, imposing, affecting:"you visit me, in my dreams, there's noone there to hear my screams, slit my skin, my flesh will tear, you rape me in my nightmare".....only to lead into the hellish chorus:"there's no devotion, with emotion, in my dreams" and suddenly Athamay achieve their first masterpiece! What is most important, it is a sound unheard of before. Some could say that Die Form have played like that, but it is much too different, as their style is obviously more "ambient" than the straightforward attack of "Dreams".

Next comes the band's biggest hit and most recognizable track, "Eternal Torture": "Cut me up, my mind's on fire, you cannot choose between lust and desire, between love, hate, you screw up my brain, your words mean nothing and I suffer the pain"....and the best part of it comes in the chorus: "crucify me, why couldn't I see, my blood splattered body was in ecstasy, sex, pain, pain, pleasure, eternal torture, lust forever". The tempo gets more intense, the keys more agressive and the whole mood is far more influencing than nearly any other electro work of the same period. No wonder this is considered by many as their best song.

But the same title is also reserved by others for the next song, "Kiss(the whip)". A sinister yet minimally arranged synth melody gives the main pace, the drums beat straight and relentless, and several echoes and effects help give a mood of claustrophobic torture. More violent images pop up here and there, and it is surprising how much Athamay achieve with such simple arrangements. They seem to have the ability to make the best out of it. Another surprise was that they handled production themselves, without any previous experience, without any previous releases (not even a demo!).

If those first three songs were classic club hits and cult anthems in a row, the next three are also dark gems, for their own reasons: "Falling" is my personal favorite, a mid tempo composition propelled by a more fragile keyboard melody, hauntingly beautiful and somehow sorrowful at the same time, whereas the drum programming adopts a much more discreet sound and Jess delivers a wonderful performance about a song that speaks of "suicide linked in with being tortured". It leaves a trace of sadness behind it, like a dark ballad. A real must.

"Domination" speeds it up again, the keyboards fill the sound with a fantastic riff, the drums sound threatening again and Jess, above all, showing no mercy: "your fascination with domination, flesh and blood to the edge of death, this is from the depths of depravity, while I suffocate in perversity". An excellent song!

And then comes the impressive "She" where we receive images of implied lesbian intimacy and other similar descriptions. The synthesizers take full hold on this one, aided by various effects in the background. Though "She" tends to be somewhat repetitive by the end, it is still a very strong number.

The next four songs consist of three simply good compositions, which do not have anything highly memorable, especially when compared to the previous songs, by the titles of "Crucifixion", "Restrict and obey" and "High tech sex". These are good songs with structure similar as above, but the melodies and the arrangements are not anything that makes them stand out. Of course the bands performance is again high standard (Jo's keyboards, Sean's bass and other arrangements and Jess' sinister vocals).

However the fourth of those songs is a fantastic anthem, in the shape of the previous ones: "Caged". Bells chiming add to the mood, the tempo's starts and stops combined with the impressive synths and Jess in full attack again, "trapped in your cage now". Excellent!

The album closes with three different remixes of songs featured on the album.

Overall, PLEASURE OF SIN is a surprisingly strong and coherent debut album from a much promising act. Its unique electro-dark sound based on minimal arrangements of which the band makes the best, without babbling, its malevolent lyrics, the absolute voice of Jess, the cult atmosphere they create, all that testifies to the power of this record.

Sadly enough, Nightbreed label would prove to be not what the band expected (and what other bands of the label would expect) and soon, legal problems would force the band to "take some time off". Therefore they started recording as TortureTekk and released an album called REVELLING IN PERVERSION experimenting with electro-industrial aggressive beats and featuring a new member, Phil, on guitars. By late 2001 the band would be freed of its legal restrictions and would start work on their second ATHAMAY album, TortureTekknology, which is about to be released. For more info, the Athamay interview which is about to be posted is quite revealing.

As far as the PLEASURE OF SIN is concerned though, there's only one suggestion: everyone should own it. It is one of the three best albums of the 90s. Simple as that.