Animosity - "Animal"

Animosity - You Can't Win (Metal Blade/Blackmarket Activities 2007)

Animosity - Animal / Metal Blade/Blackmarket Activities

In my last review (Severe Torture's Sworn Vengeance), as well as my Death Breath review, I made mention of how recording technology has negatively affected metal's sound over the past 10 years or so. First, drum triggers (devices used to process the actual sound of a drum through a computer into whatever sound you want) made it easier for drummers to play fast and accurately without trying as hard. Speed was limited when drummers actually had to hit hard in order for a microphone to pick up their sound. Now, even the slightest tap can be a thundering boom. Channel that mechanized sound into Pro-Tools and everything else falls into line, digitally. When albums are recorded like this, the sweat that goes into playing a type of music as demanding as death metal is marginalized. While this overly sterile approach doesn't really work for a number of bands, there are a few groups with a mechanized, relentless style that work well within a precise, overly accurate recording. One of these bands is San Francisco's Animosity.

Their 2003 Tribunal Records debut, Shut It Down was a decent-enough deathcore romp, made slightly more impressive by the fact that their average age was reported to be 16 at the time. 2005's Empires on Metal Blade/Blackmarket Activities was unlike anything else that came out that year. I must have listened to that album hundreds of times. Clocking in at only 27 minutes, the nine songs on Empires were short—but not concise—blasts of hardcore-laced death metal with a host of aggressive and complex twists. Riffs spiraled and changed without warning, about a hundred per song, but the songs retained a sense of direction rather than just randomly ending up at a huge breakdown for no reason other than to end the song. After that flurry of an album, my interest was piqued.

October 2007 brings us the follow-up album, Animal. Recorded with Kurt Ballou at his Godcity Studios, the production is a nice mix of Ballou's chaotic style (Converge, The Power & the Glory) and Animosity's accuracy, which adds just enough edge to make Empires sound as if it were recorded in an operating room. Sonically, everything is in place, but sounds as if it had to rush to get there . . . like all of the instruments are a little out of breath. Animosity's exactitude needs this style of recording, though . . . with so much happening, a sloppy recording wouldn't do their chops justice.

My initial complaint with Empires was that the drums were actually too busy for what the guitars, bass, and vocalist were doing. It's hard to imagine an overly-technical band having a drummer that's too busy, but when Animosity decide to ride out a riff for a few seconds (which seems like an eternity after you've been pummeled mercilessly for a few minutes) drummer Navene Koperwies needed to show restraint. This is a trait he seems to have found within himself for the recording of Animal, holding back more when the riff doesn't demand him to be flashy.

Again, the songs range from about two minutes to the album-closer "A Passionate Journey," which ends up at just over four minutes after an extended drum outro. Overall, Animal's songs end up in the two-and-a-half minute mark, which is just enough when there's a million things happening at once. It's impossible to describe an average Animosity song, but there's more changes than you can shake a stick at, and how they're able to explain song structure to one another during the writing process is beyond me. It's pure insanity with a running time similar to that of Empires, this Animal ceasing to exist at the 28-minute mark.

One other reason why fans of intense, unrelenting music should pick this up is for the vocals of Leo Miller. His defeatist, anti-war attitude comes across loud and clear in the lyrics on Animal ("I look ahead on our path / and all I see is fucking doom / plunder and rape"), but it's the way he's able to bob and weave his vocal patterns in and out of the band's ridiculous complexity is unbelievable. Musical accents match vocal accents; pauses come at just the right time . . . the pacing is just excellent. Some lyrics feel crammed into place, but that just comes with the tech territory. Most of the time, Miller succeeds in getting a lot of words in a very small spot. Vocal arrangement are often overlooked in metal, but the only way you're going to really get a feel for how amazingly difficult this can be is to get the album and literally follow along with the lyrics. It's a lost art, that lyric reading , but totally worth it on Animal.

The prowess these youngsters display on only their third album is extraordinary. Basically, if you can't handle the heat, you're going to need to get out of the kitchen, because Animosity crank the heat way up on this record. Chances are, this album is going to whiz by in what seems like a lot less than its 28-minute running time, which makes Animal a perfect contender for repeat listens, almost daring you to try and absorb everything presented on this disc without becoming overwhelmed in the process.

Severe Torture - "Sworn Vengeance"

Severe Torture - Serenity Torn Asunder

Severe Torture - Sworn Vengeance / Earache

One of the best things about death metal is that it's never going to go away. Never. There's always going to be people looking for the craziest, most over-the-top style of music (which seems to be why a lot of metal dudes end up really liking experimental music or free jazz). A lot of death metal fans are slaves to precision in the genre. This has led, over the years, to a very mechanical sound on a lot of death-metal albums. Striving to achieve sonic perfection in order to showcase how talented they are, the original idea of the music—to be as fucking brutal as possible—is lost in the ones and zeros, completely defeating the purpose of death metal. Other bands have no budget and sound really sloppy and shitty, which can work if your band is a little rough around the edges (see: grindcore bands). Holland's Severe Torture definitely fall into the former category of precise brutality, but their music has a very punk-rock feel to it . . . if you catch my vibes, maaaaaan.

After releasing their first album in 2001 (Feasting on Blood), and a follow-up in 2002 (Misanthropic Carnage) on Karmageddon Records, the band made a label jump to Earache with 2005's Fall of the Despised, a pretty slick album that was somewhat unremarkable musically, but had great cover art. After being pushed back from September to November of 2007, the world is finally getting the fourth album from Severe Torture.

Like mentioned above, these guys have a nice punk feel in way they write their songs. Sure, there's plenty of palm-muting and double bass drum action, but there's a loose, fun feel to the songs. One of the many obstacles to overcome when playing death metal is to make the songs not only brutal, but interesting to listen to (and, I'm assuming is the case for most bands, fun to play) and dissect. Severe Torture doesn't rely strictly on blasting and insanely complex riffs to get their point across. There's plenty of thrashy riffs, and the guitar work underneath the blast beats is usually pretty straightforward. Recorded cleanly, but written in a way that the riffs don't just sound like mush under a flurry of drums and vocals. You can have the cleanest recording in the history of music, and if the riffs are too busy for their own good, it's going to sound like garbage when played at a million miles per hour (especially in a live setting).

"Repeat Offender" is a great example of a death-metal band that understands tempo in their chosen genre. It's pretty mid-tempo for the most part, and drummer Seth Van De Loo switches to blasts only when the riff becomes faster and then immediately slows back down to accommodate the rest of the band when they decide that fast-time is over.

The song immediately following "Repeat Offender," "Countless Villains," is an all-slow affair, a full-count setting you up for the high-heat fastball of "Dogmasomatic Nausea," one of the many fast songs on the album.

Fast is really what Severe Torture do best, bassist Patrick Boleij doing his best Alex Webster impression and hanging with the guitar riffs like he was born to play in a death-metal rhythm section. Believe it or not, with all of the shit the bass guitar gets in metal (you can never hear it/no one pays attention to it), it really is an important part of the listening experience. It just takes a talented bassist to make his mark on an album. Guitars not doing much? How about a little bass flourish? Take a listen at 55 seconds into album-opener "Dismal Perception" for a little bass accent that not only fills up some empty musical space, but adds a little melody that the main riff eventually brings to the forefront. I don't know if it's the exact, same notes, but it sounds close.

"Buried Hatchet" finds Jason Netherton (Misery Index, ex-Dying Fetus) and Che Snelping (ex-Born From Pain) both contributing guest vocals (and another little bass zazz at the start of the track!), and the title track follows. The longest song on the album, it's a 5:18 riff marathon that ends in a slow fade-out, segueing into album-closer, "Submerged in Grief." A slow, instrumental song, it's the perfect way to round out an album that's been challenging your ears and brain for over half an hour.

Down - "Down III: Over the Under"

Down - I Scream (Down/Independent Label Group, 2007)

Down - Down III: Over the Under

Let's get this out of the way for those who don’t know: the lineup for this band contains members of Pantera, Crowbar, Corrosion of Conformity, and Eyehategod. There. It's been said. To not put that fact out in the open would just scream ignorance, but Down is basically synonymous with that referrals back to the members' previous (and in some cases, still current) bands. It also has to be said that when you have members of Pantera (who declared themselves "power groove") and Crowbar (listen to any of their albums for a smorgasbord of sludgy, hook-filled riffage), you're going to have a champion of a band.

The group's first album, Nola, was released way back in 1995 and basically solidified the "southern" sound which declares that there's nothing held in higher regard than the Almighty Riff. Six years later, Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow was released to a giant "meh" across the land. Not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but the follow-up clearly lacked the oomph of the first disc. Now, here we are six years later, and Down has finally released (seemingly out of nowhere) Down III: Over the Under.

The thing that Down succeeds so wildly at isn't crafting the most original songs in the universe, but writing songs that appeal to young and old metal fans alike. Again hailing the riff supreme, Down III is a perfect mix of the '70s and present day: stoner rock meets, well, stoner rock. They're one of these bands that bring different types of metalheads together, because whether you like black, death, grind, power or any other metal prefixes, all metalheads love a good riff. A riff that sticks to the bones; one that makes your head (or body) move.

There's nothing fancy on Down III, and that's what makes it such a winner of a record. Meat and potatoes guitar work and drumming matched with basic classic-rock song arrangements and Phil Anselmo's scream-croon that's both soulful and possessed. For the most part, the songs stick to the four- or five-minute mark, with only the interlude "His Majesty the Desert" clocking in at under three minutes. The rest of the album takes its time stretching out, venting its frustrations via the Almighty Riff(s).

Some might consider this album to run a little long with a total time of just under one hour. But with an almost nine-minute closer in "Nothing In Return (Walk Away)," this is just another step towards bands releasing albums that you want to listen to all the way through instead of just picking out the heaviest jams for the ride to work. Even though you know exactly what you're in for after a song or two, the 12 tracks on Over the Under are so well-crafted that you can't help but stick around to hear what slight variant is put on the formula to keep it interesting. Check the circle-pit inducing, mid-tempo change-ups in "On March the Saints" or the "self destruction brings misfortune" sing-along break on "In the Thrall of it All."

In closing, buy this album, enjoy it sober or stoned (all three Down records are textbooks in grass-friendly music), and prepare to see your doctor about a bad case of neck-ache brought on by uncontrollable head-bobbing.

Aeon - "Rise to Dominate"

Aeon - When the War Comes (Metal Blade 2007)

Aeon - Rise to Dominate /Metal Blade

One of the most important bands to death metal is Deicide. It's just true. Albums like Deicide, Legion, and Once Upon the Cross (not to mention 2006's The Stench of Redemption) are landmarks in the death-metal pantheon, crucial albums chock full of riffs, hooks, and that over-the-top Satanic lyricism and imagery. As we all know, history always repeats itself, although if Back to the Future has taught us anything, slight changes are sometimes made.

Aeon's 2005 album Bleeding the False was Satanic death metal in all of its evil, evil glory. Tracks like (the now infamous) "God Gives Head in Heaven" and "Morbid Desire to Burn" cut through fans and left them maimed on the floor shouting, "brutal!!!" The obvious heir to Deicide's musical throne, the one thing that set the band apart was the ability to walk that ever-present line in metal of taking one's self too seriously. Fans who listened to the album the whole way through were treated to a bluegrass version of "God Gives Head in Heaven" at the disc's end. Classic.

After such an unexpected and devastating showing, fans have been chomping at the bit since the day after Bleeding was released, waiting for the Aeon's next slab of god-hating tunes. September 2007 finally sees the release of Rise to Dominate, an excellent follow-up.

Though it's hard to establish a signature sound in a genre like death metal, it's apparent from the first track, "Helel Ben_Shaghar" (whatever that means) that this is an Aeon album. And, of course, the first word on the record is "Lucifer." The tracks march on after that with little concern for Jesus or any of his cronies. "Caressed By the Holy Man," "Godless," "You Pray to Nothing" and so on. This type of subject matter may be difficult for some people to look past, but you have to remember that this is death metal. If you want to hear incredibly brutal songs, you're going to have to live with lyrics about the devil, hell, hating Christians, and other, non-church friendly topics. Different from Bleeding the False, though, is the overly-blatant approach to Aeon's lyrics. Sure, "Spreading Their Disease" ("They use their mouths as a weapon / they shoot us with lies . . . I have my own god / so fuck you Jehovah go away") may not be the most concise attack on unwanted Christian recruitment, but "Doorkocker" from Bleeding the False takes a slightly more direct approach: "Oh please doorknocker knock on my door / so I can split your Bible in two as before." I guess it's more of a lateral move than anything.

Again, while Aeon's lyrics may be tongue-in-cheek or goofy or whatever, it's really the sound of Tommy Dahlström's voice over the blastbeats and inexorable riffs that's more important than what he's actually saying. Knowing that it's not racist or misogynistic makes it easier to see the vocals as just another component of Aeon's sound. The guitars on Rise to Dominate sound great: chunky and clear, you can hear each riffs as it breaks you down with permission granted upon pressing "play." The drums are a little too processed-sounding for my liking, the exactness of everything a little sterile, but hearing those bass drums chug away in time with the speed picking is a thing of beauty (see the closing riff of "House of Greed"). Like many metal albums before it, the bass is somewhere in there, but not really that important to Aeon's sound.

Like Deicide, there's an undercurrent of technicality in Aeon's sound that’s not always evident when casually listening. Riffs have accents in weird places and the drum patterns follow the guitars incredibly well, but still manage to keep everything grounded with a heavy, plodding feel. Nothing too flashy, but you can count on those drums being there for you when you need them, enough energy left over to throw in a crazy fill here and there for good measure. This is where Aeon really works: they keep your interest without being dicks about it and trying so hard to show off that it comes across as phony. This is the kind of technicality that is reproducible in a live setting, something that really flashy technical death-metal bands aren't always capable of. Take a listen to "When the War Comes" up there and you'll see what I mean. The amount of subtle changes in that song alone is enough to explode at least four Coldplay's.

Nerd talk aside, Rise to Dominate is as good a slab of death fucking metal that you're going to hear all year (and maybe next year) unless Aeon decide to put out another album really quickly, so get this and crank it in traffic.

If I still have your attention, I'd like to publicly (on the internet) state how bummed I am that Aeon dropped off the North-American Cannibal Corpse tour. I will use one of your own lyrics against you, Aeon.

"They do a lot of things that makes [sic] no sense."

Between the Buried and Me - "Colors"

Between the Buried and Me - (B)The Decade of Statues (Victory 2007)

Between the Buried and Me - Colors / Victory

I've always shied away from hype. Movies, music, whatever . . . anything with a ton of publicity behind it immediately makes me lose interest. I can't help it; it's just the way I'm wired. Discovering new things should be organic, natural, unforced. It was in this way that I discovered North Carolina quintet Between the Buried and Me (BTBAM). Touring in support of their 2002, self-titled album, BTBAM shared the tour with the Red Chord (also in support of their first album, Fused Together in Revolving Doors) and Premonitions of War (also touring on their first album, The True Face of Panic), and blew me away with their technical-but-catchy brand of hardcore and metal. Released on Goodfellow records (later reissued on Victory), Between the Buried and Me is a rough but enjoyable harbinger of great things to come. 2003's The Silent Circus stepped up the songwriting considerably, but it was 2005's Alaska that really made people pay attention. Now, it's 2007 and September brings us the release of Colors.

Right from the get-go, it's obvious that the "Pink Floyd of metal" tag that was branded onto the band by critics (myself included) may have gone to their heads, but only as permission to do whatever the fuck they want with heavy music. The thing about the BTBAM and Pink Floyd comparison is this: they're both capable of sonically fucking around but remaining true to their core. In the case of Pink Floyd, their music stretched beyond your stereotypical '60s and '70s rock into psychedelia, remaining catchy in spite of incredibly long songs and overwrought concepts like The Wall. And for the most part, Pink Floyd were successful, both critically and on the charts. BTBAM will never reach the sales triumph that is Dark Side of the Moon (741 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 and over 40 million copies sold), but so far, they're taking your standard metalcore in directions yet uncharted on their own, underground-ish level.

Colors opens with piano and soft singing, but it's only :55 before the rest of the band kicks in on a grandiose, "they're here!" type of riff. The 2:13 opening track ("Foam Born (A) The Backtrack") ends in a ride-cymbal-based blastbeat and immediately gives way to a hi-hat-based blastbeat on the 5:20 "(B)The Decade of Statues," which churns and chugs on to the 6:47 "Informal Gluttony," which in turn transitions into the 10:58 "Sun of Nothing," which finally takes us to the 13:10 "Ants of the Sky." Whew. Just over halfway there. BTBAM could be accused of just slopping riffs together, but if you've ever heard a metal or hardcore band that actually does that, it's painfully obvious that a lot of care is put into transitions and how riffs fit together in BTBAM's practice space.

As a metal lover, I have this thing with clean singing on albums that are marketed as "heavy." The screaming-verse-sung-chorus thing needs to go, first of all. Some bands are getting crafty (see Divine Heresy with their sort-of all-star lineup and differently-placed clean vocals) with the vocals that make it OK for mom and dad to give the purchase go-ahead, but BTBAM have really figured out how to retain a sense of melody while still going for the throat. From the aforementioned introduction of the album to straight-blasting passages, the guitars always seem to have some sort of hook going on, even if it's buried (pardon the pun) under riffing chaos. The clean-singing passages that BTBAM incorporate into their songs usually work as part of a larger theme, as they don't really have standard verses or choruses (how can you in a 13-minute song?). Maybe vocalist Tommy Rogers is complimenting a keyboard or guitar line, but generally the songs on Colors get really worked up and suddenly devolve into something unexpected and much mellower (see the numerous Iron Maiden-style scale-solos), where screaming just won't work. A hardcore band at heart, BTBAM incorporate many, many grooves and stutteringly-complex riffs (check the bass drum versus guitar on the provided MP3 up top) into the chaos of their songs, reminding the listener a number of times over the course of Colors that while they have melody and nice-guy singing, they're still not to be fucked with.

Of course, due to this album's density, the eight here are seamlessly put tied together, giving Colors an old-school, dynamic feel of an album, not just a bunch of songs on an album. You can't have a 10-minute song just end . . . it has to keep going! While this seems a little overwhelming, it's only because music listeners (even the most devoted ones) have been at least partially trained to just hear the best songs on any given record. It can be a little mind-bending when all of the songs on a release (some of them incredibly long) actually require us to pay attention to what the hell is going on. Once we do, though, it's an incredibly rewarding experience.

Altered Beast - "Demo"

Altered Beast - Morbid Collection & Computer Generated Bullshit (Self-released 2006)

Altered Beast - Demo / Self-released

Yes, a demo. Yes, they still exist. Yes, they're awesome.

Way back before the Internet, self-made tapes were the release of choice for bands that couldn't afford a 7" or later, CDs. A number of these tapes are still quite collectable, and a number of bands still stick to the release-a-demo-before-you-actually-release-something mindset. Unfortunately, only a strong few are sticking to the cassette-tape format, and one of the few faults I can find with Chicago-area Altered Beast's demo that it's begging to be released on a cassette instead of a CD, but what are you gonna' do? Formed as a side project by the drummer and vocalist (Aaron and Josh, respectively) of local grindcore band Tower of Rome, Altered Beast is to powerviolence and grindcore what House of 1000 Corpses is to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: pure, serious tribute created not with the intention of a nudge and a wink, but with the idea of carrying the goddamn torch for those who miss the old days. The 12 songs on this demo only add up to about six-and-a-half minutes of music total (that's not a typing error), but what a six minutes they are.

Grounded in the style of powerviolence-superstars Spazz, as well as lesser-known bands like Crossed Out, Despise You, and Lack of Interest, Altered Beast do the dual-vocalist thing (one screamy, one more throaty), the no-bass-guitar-on-the-recording thing (though the bassist from Tower of Rome now seems to be part of the live show), and the now-I'm-thrashing-now-I'm-blasting-now-I'm-breaking-it-down song-structure thing with glorious results.

The topics of the songs are true to typical '90s-hardcore themes: songs about friends ("Jay Who Corrupts"), beer ("Cold Style"), slasher flicks ("Voorhees Rage"), and people they don't like ("Sick Mosh Brah"), Altered Beast are clearly having fun, but it's obvious that these topics are near and dear to their hearts, otherwise they'd just find something else to write about.

Though the music may have not taken the longest time to write (as the longest track clocks in at 1:33 . . . also the only song over one minute), the lyrics very clearly had time spent on them. Either that, or Aaron and Josh are just lyrical geniuses, because lines like "Habitual line stepper / wrongful shit talker / turn your ass / into a shallow-grave inhabiter" are just brilliant, even if the "habitual line stepper" part was stolen from Chappelle's Show, and "inhabiter" doesn’t sound like a real word (it is, though), you not only know exactly what they're talking about, but it's fucking funny in the process. Clearly, someone's unnecessarily talking shit, and they're going to pay sooner rather than later.

Next up on the praise list for this amazing release is the packaging. A CD-R housed in a paper sleeve (which itself is a mini-poster), the disc also comes packaged with a bigger, fold-out poster, a button, and the whole thing is kept together in a sandwich bag. Brilliant. The liner notes are sure to remind us that everything was recorded in one take ("fuck ups intact"), and there's also a photocopied picture of Aaron with Gunnar Hansen, AKA the original Leatherface.

OK . . . so this demo is technically almost a year old at this point, but Altered Beast has been much more active lately with the hibernation of Tower of Rome, and this demo finally landed in my hands after a refusal to just have the songs emailed to me. Clearly, with the packaging, this is well-worth seeking out and will only run you a cool $3 (well-hidden cash only) to the address below. Just fucking go, already!

Altered Beast
c/o Aaron Gutierrez
15601 Orchid Drive
South Holland, IL 60473

The Red Chord - "Prey For Eyes"

The Red Chord - It Runs in the Family (Metal Blade/Black Market Activities 2007)

The Red Chord - Prey For Eyes - Metal Blade/Black Market Activities

It's been obvious from 2002's Fused Together in Revolving Doors (Robotic Empire) that there's something different . . . something not quite right about the Red Chord. As with many debuts, the listener has no idea what they're in for. With the knowledge that then-drummer Mike Justian has previously played for lesser-known hardcore outfit Hassan I Sabbah, I eagerly listened to Fused repeatedly, allowing lyrics like, "I'd like nothing better than to sever your head and set that pig on fire" and "it's not going to be all right; it's not going to be OK," sink in and do their dirty work. Plus, the album was a lesson in making hardcore-laced metal songs interesting, saving the sweet, crooning choruses for radio bands and relying instead on musicianship and unbridled anger to get their points across.

Fused Together made quite a splash in the "extreme" music world, with Metal Blade snatching up the band and vocalist Guy Kozowyk landing his label Black Market Activities a distribution deal in the process. Three years and a lineup change later (which found Justian leaving the band), the band released their second album, Clients, a loose concept album centered around various run-ins with regular crazies Kozowyk encountered while working as a pharmacist. Songs like "Antman" and "Black Santa" are clearly based off nicknames given to frequent visitors of the pill counter, which added a nice human element to Clients, along with the continued barrage of riffs, blastbeats, and bizarre lyrics ("I'm almost sorry that I must do this to get my name in lights").

Two years have passed since Clients, and the Red Chord have managed to keep their music as interesting as it was five years ago, which may not seem like a long time, but may as well be an eternity in the metal/hardcore world, where debut albums sprout up and give birth to carbon-copy discographies all the fucking time. Hatebreed, anyone? 2007's Prey For Eyes again takes the band's music one step further (and introduces yet another drummer), creating an album that's destructive, musical artwork.

Beginning with the minute-long frenzy "Film Critiques and Militia Men," the Red Chord showcase every tempo from slow, beatdown riffs to disjointed, Discordance Axis-style blasting, with the guitar line inching along and the drums grinding away with little regard for the stringed instruments' tempo. This pattern continues over the course of Prey For Eyes, each song a well-organized outburst of ideas somehow corralled into a cohesive but demanding listen. Themes appear throughout the duration of songs like "Send the Death Storm," popping up in one form or another but backed by a different drum pattern or second-guitar accent, evolving slowly. Before you know it, the song has moved from the beginning to the point of no return.

So finely are the Red Chord's songs constructed that it's never too obvious where a verse, chorus, bridge—or anything else—begins, ends, heads off to, comes back from, or when it completely abandons you. The pieces of each song meld seamlessly into one another, adding to the band's steamroller effect. This density, while appreciated for its force, can be overwhelming with the guitar and bass somewhat buried (of course . . . this is metal!) below Kozowyk's various vocal variants (low, high, yelled, gurgled) and newest drummer Brad Fickeisen's incredibly clean-sounding drum kit. There's plenty of crunch when the guitars are chugging along, but more intricate elements of the faster riffs sometimes prove to be a conundrum when the track's setting moves from "ear chop" to "aural puree." Minus a pair of headphones, the listener just needs to concentrate on the music instead of letting it ramble on in the background.

And therein lies the balance of a good, technical metal/hardcore album: forcing you to listen closely while at the same time doing its best to make sure you feel as uncomfortable as possible: "Thanks for listening, hope this hurts!" The Red Chord generally find this balance, but go one step further, letting you catch your breath with the mid-paced instrumental "It Came From Over There," just to knock it back out of you with "Intelligence Has Been Compromised."

The album closes like both previous Red Chord records have, with a six-minute-plus track of slow-building termination (although Fused Together's last track was a noise piece that seemed more like a final "fuck off, we're really trying to decimate you" to the listener), and ends with what sounds like a funeral march on the snare drum. Yes, you’ve killed me . . . I appreciate the built-in memorial service.

Death Breath - "Let It Stink"

Death Breath - Lycanthropy (Relapse 2007)

Death Breath - Let It Stink / Relapse

The argument for metal not just being a bunch of noise has always been how difficult of a genre it is to perform. Faster bands have always been at the forefront of trying to make their light-speed riffing and drumming clearly heard, and the advancements in technology over the past decade to 15 years created a strong trend in metal which saw bands gravitating towards crystal-clear production to the point of being completely devoid of personality. While nerds like myself could headphone it up and hear each stroke of the guitar or snare hit with amazing ease, a good amount of these albums all ended up sounding the same, despite differences in style, region, or personnel. Honestly, a lot of the fun was taken out of the genre; bands sounded more like Kraftwerk's robot alter-egos than human beings.

Maybe it's the fact that the most classic metal albums were created before programs like Pro-Tools or drum triggers existed, or maybe it's just the fact that history repeats itself, but the last few years have seen a backlash against the mechanized, robot-metal that has dominated for quite a while. Enter Sweden's Death Breath, a project from the versatile Nicke Andersson (Entombed, the Hellacopters).

Let It Stink is Death Breath's third release in two years (a self-titled EP and the Stinking Up the Night full-length were both issued in 2006), an like its predecessors, loves hanging out in the grime and filth of raw production and sloppy, fun performances. It's obvious from the get-go that Death Breath isn't a completely serious band. First, there's the name. Next, there's the Beatles-parody artwork (Macabre did it better on Sinister Slaughter, though), then there's the first song, "Giving Head to the Dead." All of this is enough to make someone who already dismisses metal as a bullshit genre laugh this release off, and that's fine . . . we don't want you around anyway.

Death Breath manages to perfectly straddle the line that metal permanently resides on: joking around vs. taking things seriously. There's an ingrained humor in metal that's been there since day one (Venom and Slayer were just trying to make a buck, people) and will always be there. If you're really trying to make it as a metal band, the best method is just to ignore the humor aspect and do your thing, but it's clear that Death Breath aren't trying to make a living off this.

Let It Stink features old-school death-metal legend Scott Carlson (of Repulsion fame) on a few tracks, which makes sense considering the debt Death Breath owes to him and his old band. There's the basic one-two, slow-grind drumbeat, the minimal-chords-punk-style riffing, and the echo-y, shouted vocals. Death Breath also embraces the California-style mid-tempo thrash ("Lycanthropy") that is custom made for circle pits and sweaty dudes with their flannels tied around their waists.

There's also minimal guitar soloing on this EP, but when it happens, it's loud, screechy, and like the rest of the music, not too fancy . . . yet another throwback to the '80s-style Death Breath is paying respects to. The last song on Let It Stink, though, is a mid-paced romp that settles into the slowest groove of the EP around the two-minute mark and boasts a monumental solo which also serves as the focus of the disc's fading moments.

Be sure to check out the black and white video on this EP for their eponymous song from Stinking Up the Night. It involves a zombie, a chase through a graveyard, and actual death breath. There's also a colorized version that serves as a mini horror flick instead of a music video, in case you hate that particular song, I suppose.

With work already beginning on their next album, let's just hope that the nostalgia trip doesn't get old, and that Death Breath are going to continue writing quality, old-school death metal. I leave you with these words of wisdom from their website (remember, they're Swedes): "This is the record on which we are we going to use triggered drums and write lyrics about philosophical stuff . . . well, let’s hope we don’t do that."

Slayer - "Christ Illusion" (CD/DVD Reissue with Bonus Tracks)

(Ed. Note--Audiversity is very pleased to kick off this week by introducing the newest writer to our music nerdery team. The former Review Editor for Punk Planet (R.I.P.) and an expert on all things metal, deviant and sinister, Mr. Dave Hofer is here to add a little more chutzpah to our weekly content. As a near perfect introduction, Supreme Overlord Hofer is debuting with a review of what may be the quintessential metal band, Slayer. We are ecstatic to have Dave aboard as our newest Audiversitarian, and hope you will share our excitement in the further diversification of our content.)











Slayer - Black Serenade (alternate version, American 2007)

Slayer - Christ Illusion (CD/DVD Reissue with Bonus Tracks) / American

Slayer is one of those bands that only seem to release new albums so they can tour and play a handful of new songs mixed in with a high percentage of older, classic material. Summer of 2006 brought us the band's ninth studio album, Christ Illusion, and as is the norm these days, summer of 2007 delivered a reissue of the same album, but with (gasp!) bonus material! Christ Illusion is already a great thrash album that gets the job done: it placates Slayer fans until the band can come through their town and lay waste to whatever venue they're booked in.

There's really not a lot to speak of here. The Christ Illusion reissue features two bonus tracks, only one of which is previously unreleased. "Final Six," the until-now unheard song, was left off of the album due to incompletion because of bassist/vocalist Tom Araya's gall-bladder surgery. Seriously. "Black Serenade" should look familiar, because it's already on the album. This version is slightly different: some arrangement changes that make little—if any—difference unless both versions are listened to back to back.

The DVD packs a little more punch, but not a lot. First up is a five-minute "documentary" of Slayer on tour, which is little more than quickly-edited scenes of them playing live in Florida and Australia (and also some shots of them sitting on couches backstage) set to the tune of "Jihad" from Christ Illusion. The footage is cool enough, unless you've seen their live home videos Live Intrusion, Still Reigning, and War at the Warfield, or have ever listened to their double-live album, Decade of Aggression. The most clever part is a shot of a "No Crowdsurfing" sign, and then shots of people crowd-surfing anyway.

Next is the video for "Eyes of the Insane," also from Christ Illusion, which is neat and all, but I've already seen this for free numerous times after I taped it off of Headbanger's Ball onto my metal-video VHS tape. Finally is a live clip of "South of Heaven," recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is a teaser for Slayer's fourth live home video! Good lord. It's cool seeing the lights that project inverted crosses onto their giant backdrop and all, but enough with the live footage already.

Here's an idea: the Slayer box set sucked. It was filled with rarities I could give a shit about (a live performance of "Bloodline" from ESPN France?) Why don't you release a proper double-DVD set with a full-length documentary about life on the road with Slayer (much like any of Pantera's immensely entertaining home videos), couple it with a bonus DVD of all the Slayer videos, which are never aired on TV, and offer a deluxe version of that with a CD or two of rarities?

Here's this entire review in a nutshell: the bonus features aren't worth it if you already own Christ Illusion. The fancy cover art may be fun to look at while stoned, but the "documentary," the different version of "Black Serenade," and the live version of "South of Heaven" are good for one, maybe two spins, tops. You'll probably want to listen to "Final Six" a few times because it's a good song, but it's not spend-an-additional-15-dollars good.