As relevant as disco

Hanin Elias, the former member of Atari Teenage Riot, goes positively Trent Reznor on her third solo album, "Future Noir." The one exception is the track "Burn," in which her vocals sound like the Japanese female duo Cibo Matto. If this sounds like a weird mix, that's because it is.

The CD is to be released on April 26 from her own label, Fatal Recordings, which was created with the specific purpose of promoting female artists. Her major client is the not-so-successful English band Lolita Storm. Hanin Elias is likely to have as much success as her predecessors on the label.

"I wanna feel your fur from the inside," she sings on "War." The rest of her lyrics, while not as directly influenced by Nine Inch Nails as "War," take the same bleak and nihilistic approach that appealed to all the goth kids in the mid-90s.

But that was the 1990s. By now all the goth kids have probably gotten over the hot blonde girl that wouldn't go out with them in high school. The others have no doubt killed themselves.

The same thing happened to the goth bands - they either started making good music, like Billy Corgan, or underwent various stylistic changes like Marilyn Manson.

In any case, when much of the blame for events like the Columbine shooting was put on this brand of depressing music, it left these artists branded as pariahs. The Hanin Eliases of the world were forced to create music for a genre that was already dead. This music is about as relevant as disco right now.

"Future Noir" isn't completely without its merits though. The title track and "City Lights" are catchy and appealing even if they may be perceived as techno or dance songs. These songs could almost hold their own with some of The Crystal Method's more decent cuts.

Her voice isn't half-bad either. She almost sounds like Shirley Mansion of Garbage, except that she doesn't really know how to use her voice as well. While Shirley Mansion is a bleak singer herself, compared with Elias, she feels like Judy Garland.

"It's time to die/ slow and painless/ in my room." This is just a random example from the diary-like lyrics that pervade this album. Pick a line from any song, and this sentiment stays fairly consistent. Its depressing approach can be overwhelming, and not really worth delving into for any person who ever feels an ounce of happiness.