Alternate Dystopia

Alternate Dystopia is the fifth album by Ostlandic band Rolv, released on March 12, 2016.

Described as a 'smooth, electronic, virtual experience', the conceptual album features mainly Electronic genres, as synth-pop, house and electrorock, with elements of nu-disco, future bass, funk, future house, trance, garage and complextro.

The album's story revolves around "Hard Digital", the main character of the album, which is the leader of a world called, as the album, "Alternate Dystopia". "Alternate Dystopia" is the direct sequel to their past project, 'Blind Fantasy', which was their first album to feature a backstory.

Background
The album liner notes features a whole page with random binary codes, which decrypted relate parts of story behind the album. "Hard Digital is the supreme leader in a world called 'Alternate Dystopia'. In this world, the inhabitants are binary codes. Zeros and ones. Hard Digital is his nickname. In the world of Alternate Dystopia, you have to create viruses to down your adversaries' servers. Hard Digital, greatest of hackers, was chosen to protect Alternate Dystopia from 'The other side', by creating world's biggest and most destructive virus, but in the path, he ends destroying his own. He created a virus, 'Modern Frankenstein', but he took the control of the codebar, and started corrupting the codes of the normal people. — Album liner notes"

In the world of "Alternative Dystopia", the band incarnates an alter ego called  'Future Crookies' , which are know for their round-dark glasses lenses. The 'Future Crookies' are in charge to battle 'Modern Frankenstein', learning some lessons during the journey. The 'Future Crookies' are featured in the music video for 'Riding Rainbows'.

Singles
The album's first single, 'Future Crookies ' was announced on October 1, 2014, and released on November 14. The song was sent to radios in Ostland, the UK and Australia October 7, and in the United States, France and Italy on October 9. The song was premiered during a performance on the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show, broadcasted by ABC. The song has a futuristic, synth-pop electronic sound, inspired by pop music in the late 70s and 80s decades, with elements of funk and garage music. The song talks about the band, personified as the band of the same name in the universe of the album, and how they use the music to fight the "virus".

'Gatekeeper ' was released as the second single on January 5, 2016. The song features a electronic sound, influenced by garage house and nu-disco music, the song is inspired by the "club dance music". The song peaked at #1 on Ostlandic Top 100 becoming their eleventh song to do so, and has sold over 2 million units in the country.

' Stepping In ' was sent to American and British radios on January 27, being released as the third single on February 2. The song is the direct continuity to "Future Crookies", and its reflected on heavy synths base and its nu-disco sound, with influences of completxtro and trance. 'Hard Digital ' was released as the first promotional single, and as the b-side of "Stepping In" and was promoted on American clubs starting on February 12, 2016. The song features a heavy, dark electronic sound, with influences of brostep, trap and indietronica.

Reception
Alternate Dystopia was acclaimed by the critics since it release. The album received positive reviews on various platforms and critic sites. In Metacritic, site which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 83, based on 17 reviews, which indicates an "universal acclaim" by critics.

Jason Lipshutz, from Billboard, wrote an article the analizing track-by-track the album, praising its "eclectic" production, describing it as "the most experimental album by the band" and as "a very deep, evocative project with very reflective, thoughtful lyrics and powerful beats".

The album was specially praised for featuring a variety of sounds within the electronic dance music. It is specially notable on songs as ' Gatekeeper ' (garage house), ' Riding Rainbows ' (melodic dubstep, microhouse), ' Hard Digital ' and ' Scrypted Hearts ' (complextro) and ' Future Crookies ' (nu-disco), along others featuring sounds outside the Electronic spectrum, as ' Infected Minds ' (electronic rock, hip-hop), ' Nihilist Dumb ' (nu-metal, alternative dance), and 'Stop The Machines ' (industrial).