This is a band whose name I like (and the album title rather rolls off the tongue as well); first they like to play with language and meaning, don’t take themselves too seriously (also indicated by the song titles, and general creativity in music and vocal styles and lyrics). All tied together and indicated first by the band’s name. Secondly, it illustrates their music, which sounds messy yet structured and meticulously detailed, just like a semi-decomposed corpse (a band name which thankfully they didn’t choose) that’s been disinterred and re-examined, taken apart and put back together again. A bit undisciplined, and they could consolidate their sound(s) a bit more and have a cohesive and separate feel, more, for each song. But this is quibbling considering this is their first full-length and exemplifies the new metal – by which I mean the (re-)emerging genre, semi-underground, of real metal, indicated by the profusion of sub-sub genre names with little meaning any more (especially here, in this album which is referred to by hair-splitting afficionados as ‘deathcore’, or a cross between ‘death metal’ (ok) and ‘metalcore’ (huh?)).
As new metal this album has baroque (as in classical, in music, from 17th century violin music, the first time chords and chord changes became labelled ‘satanic’ by the Church) song structure with narrative cohesion rather than pop, and jazz aesthetic as ‘freedom within structure’ rather than rock, or as much as. Vocals range from punk-hardcore-anthem (with lyric content more like early Slayer and Metallica, to keep a metal edge) through various black and death metal growls and banshee-wails, the whole thing sounds rather more like trouble at the zoo – good stuff; the voice used as an instrument. And, though, while the album artwork is good for low-budget, illustrating some appropriately decadent fantasy world out of H.P. Lovecraft, like the feel of their music (and even song title or two), printed lyrics wouldn’t be pointless.
Though the new metal, as here, is more concerned with expressing some oblique meaning in the catharsis of the music itself and its evolving structure, which pulls you in listening to the layers, changes and narrative, which seems to express a meaning which would be different for everyone, dramatizing processes of nature and consciousness while simultaneously erecting an anti-nature, ornate sonic edifice one can lose oneself in as in, again, some beautifully horrific fantasy world (which is still totally immanent, the world we live in, and relevant).
Recommended, in short.
This CD. {4/5}
By Chris Pelzer
The writer of this review takes pretention to new heights.
Its a metal album.
Its very heavy.
Its vicious.
Its uncompromising.
Its infectious.
Its worth buying
Simple.