It's familiar, right down to the awful lyrics ("I wanna go to heaven, never been there before"), but refreshingly direct-- closer to Definitely Maybe form than the pretentious bloat of recent Oasis.

Which makes sense: If psychedelic rock begat the trance/dance of the 90s rave scene, it's not much of a stretch to figure that Death in Vegas would naturally come out sounding pretty Summer of Love if given the Altered States treatment. Two of these (the banjo-and-mandolin-contrasted "Killing Suite" and the droning "Help Yourself") feature former Mazzy Star crooner Hope Sandoval, and your appreciation of such is probably directly proportional to your nostalgia for "Fade Into You"-type atmospheric noir. s Nicola Kuperus) of "Hands Around My Throat" are well supported, rather than overwhelmed, by some additive live drumming and clanging guitar. So while the two hearts of Death in Vegas are firmly in the right place, given that some of the biggest electronic hits have been from DJs hewing their sound to a rock standard, the execution is ultimately flawed.

A taste of “My Bloody Valentine” and some electro pulses are thrillingly constructed in the different parts of the album. Adhering to what must be formal guidelines set by the electronic music industry, Death in Vegas exist as a duo, and have ever since the height of the electronic boom in the mid-to-late 1990s. Scorpio Rising continues along that asymptote towards a supposed "organic" sound, going light on the laptop and heavy on the relics of yesteryear: drums, basses, and guitars.

Several songs on the album have appeared on film soundtracks, Girls is featured on the soundtrack to the 2003 film Lost in Translation and Hands Around My Throat is featured on the Animatrix soundtrack. Other reviews are pretty average, mixed or negative: Q gave the album three stars out of five and stated: "There's no doubting their enthusiasm but it seems Death In Vegas have compiled a list of great cult albums rather than actually making one themselves. Elsewhere, Paul Weller gets a paisley backdrop of his own, lending a chesty vocal to "If You Say You Lost Your Baby" that does well to approximate a roided-up Forever Changes, while slower material engages in grandiose displays of Indian-inflected orchestration, conducted by the mysteriously Bond-villain-sounding Dr. From Radiohead's voyages into squiggly experimentation and beatmongering, to the current Rapture school of hiring producers to apply a timely lacquer of club sauce, such acts are celebrated for their admirable attempts at forward-thinking.Playlouder gave it one-and-a-half stars out of five and stated that in the album "there are a couple of standout tracks, and the rest falls on its arse. Perhaps the duo is just second-tier to begin with, or perhaps they just let the needle swing too far towards the rock side of the dial, but the peak moments on Scorpio Rising offer little more than enjoyable nostalgia for overhead-projector light shows. In fact, if not for Death in Vegas' faceless DJ anonymity and a couple of characteristic electronic facets (the implementation of a few choice samples; a roster of Brit-centric celebrity guest vocalists including Paul Weller, Hope Sandoval, and Liam Gallagher), one might assume that the outfit responsible for this album was just a band with a hefty case of NME-approved 60s psych nostalgia.

The song "Hands Around My Throat" contains samples from the songs " Rock Around the Clock" by Telex (written by Max C.

Hands Around My Throat" is featured on the Animatrix soundtrack; in a commercial TV-spot by Sony Ericsson for Sony Ericsson K700i; and in the episode "Once Bitten" of Big Little Lies. Lies" includes a sample from "Goin' Back" by The Byrds, written and composed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin.