Tom Shear is simply a legend. He is the mind and soul behind 'Assemblage 23' and only second behind 'VNV Nation' in the future-pop/fusion scene. I am on my way in getting the full library compilation of Tom Shears, Assemblage 23. This album, 'Storm', is one of the best albums to date that I have listened to - now a number of times. Released in late 2004 and being Assemblage 23's 4 release by Metropolis records, the label showed alot of faith and grit in sticking by Tom Shear. And they were richly rewarded.

'Storm' follows on and builds on the rich sounds and driving industrial beats that Assemblage 23 employs to great success. Tom Shear is a great musician who loves mixing and producing music and his voice seemingly is made for this brand of music. I enjoyed the first two songs 'Human' and 'Skin' from this album. The original album version of 'Ground' was great to listen to. As we know now 'Ground' was released with its mixes on a EP in 2004. A powerful word lyrically wise was 'Let the Wind Erase Me', which had Shear at his ethereal best. 'Infinite' was the original album version. Since this album, this song has many many notable remixes made which can be accessed on Assemblage 23's website or on other albums by this artist.

'You Haven't Earned It' is a message filled song with a dance beat pace of ponderings of people who get chances that are not deserved it. One of my favourite songs was 'Regret' which I could relate to. Tom Shear sings this song with a driving wall of emotion. It is about the hurt we cause others, the pain inflicted on our own souls and how we tend to regret past actions with many a time no recourse to repair damage done. Another favourite song and probably the most emotional lyrically is the softer more monotronic '30FT', that was a tribute to the victims of 9/11. The lyrics center on a person who knows their plane is going to crash and he calls his loved one and leaves a last message on the answering machine before the plane crashes at the end of the song.

This is a excellently presented album with several best songs done by Assemblage 23, vintage future-pop.

Intelligent, pulsing, and thoughtful, the latest effort by A23 (Tom Shear) is simply brilliant!

Ignore the writing on the wall, Tom has raised not only the bar of his personal endevours, but that of the entire IDM/EBM, techno, dance, futurepop genre. From his honest and introspective "Human" to the shattering, thought-provoking, post-9/11 "30KFT" (complete with nightmarish end) is ahead of the line - well beyond the worn out, played out anthems of many in his class.

Smart, fun, blunt, and revealing, "Storm" lets you be comfortable in your own skin while taking you on a journey into a world where humanity finds its common ground and obscurity is left behind.

Pure poetry and oscillating rhythms drive this album home.

A must have!!!

This is the not one of the best Assemblage 23 album but still good Since the first time I put it in my CD player, it slowly grew on me, and I listen to on a regular basis. My favorite tracks are Ground and Storm, both musically and lyrically speaking. But the album as a whole is a decent piece of work , and is good to dance to!

It may sound a little fanboy-ish, but this Tom Sheer effort has become the standard by which all other music of this genre should be compared. More than two years after the release of this incredible disc, I still find myself listening to it on a regular basis. This is raw, emotional, powerful, and above all, FUN to listen to. Tom Sheer's career as Assemblage 23 shows a definitive progression... from the growling, angry, disgust found on his first album "Contempt" on up through "Storm", which is far more positive and upbeat. But don't get me wrong... we're not talking about fields of daisies and cute fluffy bunnies; not at all. Still, "Storm" shows a man who has come to terms with himself and his life and knows that he is in a better place now.

That's a lot to take away from a synthpop-electronica album, isn't it? Of course it's just my opinion, but I can really feel the emotion behind these songs. Sheer is a man who clearly puts his heart and his everything into his music, and that has never been more clearly represented than on this album. The content of every song is profound, thought-provoking, deep, and meaningful. This isn't silly junk about unrequited love, or formulaic warblings about dislike of government, or any other garbage found in most music today and in the last decade. This is REAL. This is about a man who has faced many challenges and has overcome them, and the result is this inspirational and uplifting disc that makes you start dancing and never stop. And it'll make you cry, too... the final track, 30Kft, is Assembage 23's most heart-wrenching emotional song since "Disappoint" from the album "Failure". Truly, few musicians can adequately capture such a vast range of emotions and feelings in their work.

Every track is well-crafted, every song catchy. I bought this album the week it came out in 2004, and it is one of two albums (Killing Joke's self-titled 2004 release being the other) that I rank as some of the best music ever produced. When I speak of the bar being raised, it's because I look at the depth and content of this album in comparison to VNV Nation's formulaic "Matter + Form" and Covenant's vastly subpar "Skyshaper", bands that were once formidable staples of this genre, and I cringe. How can these other former giants fall from grace in such a way when ONE MAN, Tom Sheer, can single-handedly make a disc this good? It all sounds so silly for me to praise this album so much, but it's true.

If you're reading this review, there is absolutely no reason why you should not buy this disc. This is THE standard for electronic music. Just be warned: once you hear the vast superiority of the musicianship found on this album, it may be very hard for you to accept subpar offerings from other bands in this category. Assemblage 23 will never get the accolades it deserves because the world is too busy digesting mindless tripe from whiney Coldplay or crunching on their bubble gum while listening to Jessica Simpson. It's a shame, because "Storm" is so far superior in every single way. Well done, Mr. Sheer!

I have to disagree with many of the other reviewers. I would say that this album is truly a classic. It is not very often that you find an album where every single song is great. Yes, the songs on the album do lack variety. But this is a strength rather than a weakness. Artists too often ruin an album by trying to mix slow songs with fast songs or dark songs with bright songs. The end result is that one finds oneself skipping through different tracks depending on what mood one is in. Storm does not have this problem because all of the songs on the album evoke a similar emotion. I am not quite sure how to categorize that emotion. One reviewer called the album "surprisingly uplifting". Well, "uplifting" is probably the closest one can come to describing the album with one word, but for some reason it seems inadequate. I would say that this album expresses the feeling that a person gets if he is racked with depression and anxiety for weeks, but then one day after deep thought realizes that everything is going to be o.k. It is definetly worth buying.