ALBUM REVIEWS III - Music - http://maxpages.com/aeazine/ALBUM_REVIEWS

Luxt American Beast Blackliner
Seducing a hardcore following from the west coast and outward by playing shows before even going into the studio, the Northern California-based alterna-thrashers Luxt add another sub-classification to metal calling themselves “cyber voodoo rock.” I will point out that right off the bat, the band are fronted by a female vocalist, but regardless of the advice the music business have to offer bands of how frontwomen should rely on their looks to get noticed, this arrangement is no attempt to easily reach to diva-dom with a big haired singer show a lot of flesh. In fact, you might argue Anna Christine chooses to go in the opposite direction, emulating “grunge fashion” to undermine her good looks and draw attention to her range as a vocalist while performing onstage. Though Anna could have gotten away with using her looks, her strategy has worked so far as she makes extra effort to match the intensity of the music backing her up. Most of the publicity American Beast has received has been positive as writers see the primal quality Luxt channel through their songs. Anna’s vocals rely more on hypnotism than aggression, but have a strong presence. Echo effects added to her voice often augments her low octave delivery. Choppy, tightly condensed guitars are complemented by electronic sounds and backing vocals from Erie Loch that roar counterpoints to what Anna is singing in the heavier songs, but revert to melody when the volume is toned down for reflective melodies. On many occasions the album takes unexpected turns between hypnotically repetitive choruses and waves of keyboard sounds that seem at first to have little to do with what was happening earlier, but this is meant to throw the listener off track while listening so you anticipate what the band have in mind to unleash on you next.

1349 Liberation Candlelight
The “pure evil” school of Norse black metal has returned with a vengeance as fanzines everywhere seem unanimous in agreeing that 1349 are the next to make a lasting impression among the new crop of extreme metal bands. Perhaps one major reason they’re getting off to an impressive start with one MCD and one full-length is because Satyricon skinbasher Frost pushes their speed and raw energy to inimitable levels from the drummer’s throne. On the other hand, it wasn’t long before he decided they were worthy of his formidable talents when he heard their early material as Alvheim, so it wouldn’t be wise to sell them short. You can’t deny Liberation wastes no time launching an all-out assault upon the human senses, blasting mercilessly through forty minutes in the vein of Satyricon and Pure Holocaust-era Immortal. Those similarities are not only in the riffs written into the material that Frost backs, up but the blasphemous dedication they deliver it with as they curse religious icons and convey the darkened atmosphere the trailblazers of the Norwegian scene personified to envelop all light. Slated for an April release, Liberation has yet to be unleashed on the underground, but when it arrives all poseurs had better run for cover because they’re going to storm for conquest aiming straight for your jugular. The only thing wrong with this album is there wasn’t enough bottom to justify the malevolence the band put across; if there was more emphasis on the bass it would have made the atmosphere much deeper and more menacing. This still doesn’t render the music too raw to be able to make out what’s happening; the guitar riffs are very sharp and audible in the mix, and the howling vocals have the right balance with all the instruments behind it. Slower songs like “Legion” and “Riders of the Apocalypse” pound on with even more power and resolve than those with blast beats. In terms of sheer musical carnage, 1349’s cover of Mayhem’s “Buried by Time and Dust” must be heard to be believed as it surpasses the velocity of the original version.

Regurgitate Hatefilled Vengeance Relapse
The disclaimer Regurgitate placed on the front page of their website says “this music may be hazardous to your dignity, and moral values.” Directly beneath this declaration, you’ll find a quote from a presumably offended party who was raving of how they should be barred from releasing music for the violent pornography celebrated in their songs. If you remember the band’s work from Carnivorous Erection being reviewed in these pages the ghastly images they shamelessly presented of pathological intercourse with unwitting female victims ending in unspeakable damage done to their anatomy should still be fresh in your memory. I guarantee the band crawled under the skin of many a potential censor from the mental pictures birthed by their twisted imagination and translated to music. And their mission to offend people appears far from complete as Relapse is set to release Deviant, their next full-length in another month or two. In the meantime the have a short MCD they released last year with enough porno/gore subject matter to tide you over. The art gracing Hatefilled Vengeance is a grainy looking, shaded black and white drawing of a psychotic serial killer apprehending another subject for his unsavory practices. Inside there are a total of eighteen songs taking up a duration of under twenty minutes as many of these pieces are of the old school grindcore formula of blasting through a handful of seconds. The physical torture the band write about in “Fleshmangler” and “Drastical Decapitation” is less sexual as a whole, focusing generally on pure violence while pieces like “Devastation and Nuclear Apocalypse” cover wider territory while being spewed forth as if from a rabid canine foaming at the mouth. The music is grittier than I remember the band being earlier, with guitars and bass delivering equal amounts of distortion while the drums pound on through accents and blast beats in a way that Mick Harris would be proud of.

Insision Beneath the Folds of Flesh Wicked World
Insision is the first death metal band hailing from Sweden I’ve heard in a long time that hasn’t taken inspiration in some way from Hypocrisy, as obvious as it is that I like Hypocrisy and the melodic black-death that’s been generated from there. But going by Beneath the Folds of Flesh the band strictly follow the “classic” death metal formula, reinforcing brutality with a vengeance to show their determination to maintain its position in the underground. I was periodically reminded of Morbid Angel as I listened, mostly because the similar dexterity in the guitar riffs was among the first impressions I received. With repeated listens I considered the possibility that Insision may even be able to surpass Morbid Angel in this department. It’s certainly a brave declaration to make in print, and Morbid Angel’s status in extreme music will hardly be threatened even if people read this. But at the very least, Insision often come extremely close to matching the Florida death metallers when it comes to jamming as many notes as possible into a progression of riffs and reinforcing the notion that a band does need equal amounts of talent and endurance to pull off playing this style of music. Instantly upon the start of this album, what to anticipate is a ferocious barrage of whirlwind notes in each part of these songs careening through plenty of time changes, all delivered faster than the average sleaze rocker can hope to keep up with. Having been signed to Earache’s subsidiary label after releasing just one MCD, Insision is a band that could well be going places with no delay..

Grade 8 Grade 8 Lava
Ryan Tooker’s post-punk hip-hop emulation in the verses of “Brick by Brick” and “Get It Out,” for which Biohazard and Rage Against the Machine are credited, may prove a turn off to extreme metal purists steadfast in believing rap and metal don’t go together that well, but alternating between this and more aggressive vocals over a heavier guitar sound courtesy of his brother Dustin should compensate for this, especially when Grade 8 play this summer’s Ozzfest. Another redeeming factor Grade 8 have to speak for is that they are not determined to garner sympathy by complaining about one’s hardships without doing anything constructive about them. There’s anger here, but it’s channeled toward becoming a man instead of a whiner expressing himself through emo-metal (even more of an oxymoron than many consider rap-metal to be). Though it’s a good idea to wed eastern coast influences from Biohazard, Sick of It All and Life of Agony to the western coast post-thrash that influenced them, and this along with the backbone of bassist Guy Couturier does result in heavier music than that of their peers, it won’t be as accurate a representation of the New York sound since the band come from New Jersey. Grade 8’s collective influences also sound too obvious as they recorded this album as fans of their favorite bands. But the verses mentioned earlier and many of the choruses are catchier than what System of A Down have been doing, and the guitars make quite a few interesting transitions between the mounting tension and said tension’s eventual release with minimal electronic effects while drummer Scotty Karneghi often uses double bass to add to the band’s heaviness.

Thanatos Beyond Terror Baphomet/Red Stream
Something tells me if Thanatos’ scheduled European tour with Cannibal Corpse and Exhorder in the early 90’s didn’t fall through, they may have gotten their feet in the door in the States instead of calling it quits soon after, as they’d already built a following in their native Holland and abroad releasing solid albums and touring with Sepultura, Bolt Thrower and Napalm Death, not to mention old school stalwarts like Kreator and Death Angel. As a band that emerged from the thrash era, Thanatos established such a reputation that public demand forced them to reform with enthusiasm to resume where they left off. “L’Aldila – Beyond Terror” begins with a Halloween-esque piano excursion, suggesting danger lurking ahead in classic thrash fashion. Energy mounts as guitar chords ring out over this hypnotically serene melody, accompanied by drum fills, then explodes into a Slayer-esque riff underscored by a down beat before the blast beat takes off, introducing a heavily thrash-influenced style of death metal with frenetic guitar solos and crunching time changes. Darkened production, emphasis on bottom and alternating low-high pitched vocals from Stephan Gebedi defines the sound of Beyond Terror as their thrash roots are still apparent. Yuri Rinkel provides much of the band’s backbone, his persistent blast beats keeping things running steadily in the title cut, “Devour the Living” and the apocalyptic “Angelic Encounters,” which suggest the end of the world will come similar to Deicide’s “The Truth Above.” What most interested me were the band’s darkened covers of the Possessed and Celtic Frost classics “Satan’s Curse” and “Into the Crypts of Rays.” The Possessed cover remains more faithful to the original as Celtic Frost’s songwriting could never be duplicated accurately enough by anyone.

Bethlehem Suicide Radio Red Stream
This is not a new album from Bethlehem in the conventional sense, but rather a visual experience the band created that marries grim, atmospheric, despondent black metal to psycholigical subliminal stimulus forcing you to confront those very inner demons and other things that fascinate and terrify you the most. Be forewarned, Ii you’re sorely depressed, Suicide Radio is probably not to count on to elevate your spirits. But it dispels the myth that heavy metal encourages suicide if you view it from a different perspective. The band is extremely particular about what requirements your computer system has to meet in order to watch the CD-ROM tracks; Quick Time version 5.0 or higher being the most important; but if you meet them you’re in for an enjoyable ride provided you can handle the stark insanity that awaits you. I viewed the video tracks accompanied by the bleak, darkened electronics–tinged music this CD ROM has to offer with the kind of detached sense of curiosity it seems to naturally instill in you. The perceived message will probably vary according to who is watching this, but I interpreted what I saw as profoundly haunting statements about confronting the fragile thing we know to be human mortality while watching technology crumble right before your eyes, and allowing yourself to be led by hypnotic suggestion regardless of where doing so may ultimately lead you. The images accompanying the mournful tone of the music is meant to bore straight into your soul with their incessant depression. I shouldn’t reveal too much, but to provide an example, the video of “Tagebuch enier Totgeburt” compares life to death, ascendancy to decline, nature to technology, peace to war, and finally earth to the cosmos with a soundtrack that drives the point home. It’s a journey you’re not likely to forget.

Various Artists Italian Experiences III Path Of Experiences
Path Of Experiences (P.O.E. to be succinct) is an Italian-based label that just recently came into existence, releasing a small but noticeable amount of material from the handful of bands included in their ranks so far. Worth mentioning among these who a few of you may have already heard of are Nuclear Devastation, a grindcore act that have been around since 1995 and recently released a split with Agathocles, and an experimental doom band Paul Chain Experimental Information. Both these bands are featured on the third volume of the Italian Experiences compilation series handled D.I.Y. style by the label. Many of the bands on this compilation can be more accurately categorized as hard rock though this ranges between goth, crossover, psychedelic, alternative and funk-metal, as if the label is going out of its way to show its eclecticism. In a purist’s perception, this may prove a disappointment if one is seeking a compilation consisting of extreme music the whole way through. But the guys at the label seemed to know what they were doing when they arranged the order of each song, and the transition between these different styles isn’t too drastic from track to track though at times you can pick up on the obvious sound of recording machinery being turned off in the space between songs. The only time this steady transition is broken is when Nuclear Devastation’s “Radioactivity” comes around. Included is a short bio and contact info for each band included. Write P.O.E. at C.P. 317, 07100 Sassari, Italy

Vital Remains Dechristianize Century Media
The turn of the millennium came and went and the world didn’t experience any Biblical apocalypse with fire raining from the sky or legions of insects descending upon mankind to wreak suffering as the New Testament insisted it would. This is the concept behind Vital Remains’ Dechristianize that was released this year. Recorded at legendary death metal base of operations Morrisound Studios, this appears eager to set new standards in brutality, with epic pieces clocking in up to ten minutes fueled by melodic guitar textures and sustained by the relentless blast beats that seem impossible to achieve with human hands. The inventiveness and imagination mainstays Tony Lazaro and Dave Suzuki bring will justify Vital Remains having stuck it out through Let Us Pray and Forever Underground. The only problem with handling various instruments is they need additional musicians to help out when they go touring, and this is one of those cases where it would be difficult to find musicians capable of handling the furious speed and complex song structure they pull off with Dechristianize. Glen Benton of Deicide makes an appearance as lead vocalist, bestowing his formidable talent as a death metal bellower upon the intensity they pull off in the studio, which makes this a must-have for enthusiasts of primal brutality. Lazaro and Suzuki also make worthy candidates for what the metal mainstream would term iconic guitar duos, incorporating the Florida death metal sound with shades of classical-power metal and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal championed by Iron Maiden.

Brick Bath Rebuilt Crash Music
As with Pantera and Pro-Pain, listening to the innermost emotions translated to record by Brick Bath is the equivalent of having a strip of sandpaper drawn across the outer edges of a healing wound, or in some cases the flame of a lit cigarette lighter. They’re not ashamed to vent their collective frustration, and you’ll feel you’re experiencing the pent-up rage along with them. But consider the title while listening. Going by this, these emotions are released for the purpose of purging the demons placed inside by others and rebuild one’s inner self. The negativity that comes with this is just a preliminary. Brick Bath is building their energy toward college radio exposure. The track record they’re accumulating includes an increasing number of local stations across the U.S., which could grow now that they’ve begun to find themselves as musicians and their identity as a band since I Won’t Live the Lie. Originating in Southern California, Brick Bath channel power akin to classic Metallica with vocals a bit likened to groove-death metal There’s tighter musicianship and smoother transition from thrash to groove sections. The melodies and guitar hooks are heavier and catchier as a result. “Said,” “Afraid” and “Blasphemy” have more personalized lyrics that communicate more effectively than if they were generalized. “Nauseated,” “At the Edge” and “Contradicted” also reveal there is a need to direct these outbursts toward their intended targets.

Usurper Twilight Dominion Earache
The back cover of Twilight Dominion warns big-hair bands to run for shelter when Usurper arrive to do battle for real heavy metal, dressed for the occasion with more leather and spikes than ever, which represents their dedication to their roots in the bands they admired while growing up in a world they set out to level with their raw power. This dedication has lasted through each full-length, tours with Dark Funeral, Manowar and Cradle of Filth and their contribution to compilations like Headbangers Against Disco. Since 1995’s Diabolosis, Usurper took their inspiration from the eighties’ most prominent underground bands and increased the heaviness by two or three hundred per cent. With their Earache debut their formula is a bit polished, with Diabolical Slaughter’s vocals a bit cleaner, but their intended impact isn’t even slightly assuaged. While playing, Usurper wrench power from the pits of their souls to pour forth upon the opposition. Neil Kernos has gained experience with brutality producing Judas Priest and Cannibal Corpse. On Twilight Dominion he does a commendable job sustaining the band’s heaviness despite things being less raw than older albums. Diabolical Slaughter’s guttural screams match the grinding guitars of “Utopian Nightmare,” “Invincible Overlords” and “Perpetual Twilight.” These songs press their way through all obstacles like a Sherman tank bearing true metal’s enemies under. They also comprise a conceptual story conceived in two parts accented by diatribes about invoking the god of metal like “Metal Lust” and “I Am Usurper.”

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

AEA
3 Maple St.
Garden City	NY	11530-1812
USA
AEAzinedw@aol.com

Visitors: 00376

Page Updated Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:40pm EDT