JUSTIN’S METAL REVIEWS W/C
11/2/08
BRAIN DRILL / APOCALYPTIC FEASTING
Wow, this is one very intense album to listen to from new
Metal Blade signing, Brain Drill, they are part of the new Xtreame and musically they sound like early Cannibal Corpse
with lots of modern influences.
Their name is very apt as listening to these guys is a bit
like having a hole drilled in your skull without anaesthetic, in fact the first
track, “Goreification” even has the sound drilling
into your brain. From start to
finish these guys just don’t let up, all the songs are as intense as a heart
attack and just as serious but it not all just speed as there are some seriously
fast, furious and complex riffs going on in here that make tracks like “Sadistic
Abductive”, “Swine Slaughter”, “Bury The Living” and
“Parasites” such a joy to listen to, although joy is not the right
word.
Warning, this is not for the feint hearted or the casual
listen but if you like early Cannibal Corpse and technical Death Metal you will
be rewarded with a very good album, its only just over 35 minutes long but I
don’t think the human psyche could take much longer than
that.
WEBSITE http://www.myspace.com/braindrill
& http://www.metalblade.de/
DOWNLOAD
“Apocalyptic Feasting”
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 35 mins + 10
SKULL CRACKING TRACKS
CREMATORY / PRAY
If you like your Death Metal laced with a heavy dose of
Gothic then look no further than German ban Crematory, these guys have been
going for some time now and are very deft at writing, melodic, moody and
seductive songs in the vein of classic Paradise Lost.
Right from the first song “When Darkness Falls” the guys
pull out all the stops and the song has all the trademarks that we have come to
know and love, it has a really good melody, with both sung and the usual Death
type vocals and “Left The Ground” is similarly endowed. The tracks “Sleeping Solution” is a
slower more deliberate delivery as does “Say Just Words” (not a cover of the
This is another fine album from Crematory and deserves to be
herd and in your collection and you can be certain that I will be playing lots
of track off this CD on my HFM show, in fact the track “Prey” got played on
daytime as part of our 1st birthday which was on Sunday
10th, very apt I thought.
WEBSITE http://www.crematory.de/ & http://www.massacrerecords.com/
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 48 mins + 10
GLORIOUS TRACKS
MESHUGGAH / OBZEN
If you’re looking for some head spinning, technically
difficult, staccato time changes, insidiously hypnotic, rhythmic, riff filled
guitar work with disturbingly haunting melodies, then look no further than the
new album by Meshuggah.
This is Technical Death Metal in its highest form, the word
Progressive springs to mind but somehow the Death Meal aficionados don’t like
that word but personally I think it describes the style better. The thing you notice most is the lack of
incredibly fast lead guitar as all the lead work is slow and deliberate, with a
strange Melodic haunting quality to them, the tracks “Electric Red” and “Bleed”
being prime examples. Even some of
the son titles are way out there, try “Pineal Gland Optics” or the oddly named
“The Spiteful Snake” for size, the titles bay be odd but the Metal is top
rate.
This may take a bit of listening to but your patience will
be rewarded with an outstanding album that deserves to be in your collection and
that’s why it’s my album of the week on HFM.
WEBSITE http://www.meshuggah.net/ & http://www.nuclearblast.de/
TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 53 mins + 9
TRACKS