Four Seats for Invalides - Defy
I have a great amount of respect for this long-running, battle-tested Grindcore troop from the Czech Republic, so it pains me to alert you that Defy is a total letdown for me, bordering on embarrassment. The music just isn’t as sharp, nowhere near as intense. The vocals don’t sound as good, and this may be the poorest job of drum programming I’ve ever heard. It’s erratic, jumbled, and sloppy with an overall sound that tortures the listener with its annoyance. What’s really sad is that this band has been churning out solid underground releases for about a decade without ever really breaking through. To my ears, this is a tremendous setback. I hope for a rebound, because these sick fucks really do know how to Grind.
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Four Seats for Invalides - Livestock
Four Seats have always been intense, and these eight songs, recorded live in 1997, show a little of what one of their performances would be like. Admittedly, the sound is a bit raw, and the mix somewhat vocal heavy, and would have been helped by more up front guitars, but all things considered, this is certainly more than worth a listen. And it’s on “infection yellow” vinyl, too.
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Forgive-Me-Not - Spaceapple
I have no idea why I like this Hard Rock album. Maybe it’s a little “dark,” like Babylon Whores or something, but not too much. Perhaps it’s that the vocals have at least a little “edge” to them and are not at all wimpy. And neither is the crunchy guitar tone. I guess it’s just that the songs are so super-memorable. Whatever the mysterious reasons, I thoroughly enjoyed this disc.
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Firstborn Evil - Rebirth of Evil
Epic, atmospheric Black Metal with flourishes of Traditional Metal.
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Final Tragedy - Trial of Tragedy
This french duo play a melodic, guitar dominated Progressive Metal that reminds me of what Dream Theater would sound like with a female singer (actually, that queen from DT already sounds like a woman to me). These four tunes wind through some unusual and interesting tempo and key changes, but, ultimately they just didn’t hold my attention. My biggest complaint is that this music was obviously composed and performed by a guitarist and as a result the accompanying instruments suffer in their rather uninspired and blatantly programmed execution. If they got some other human musicians in there, the music might end up as cool as the guitar solos. Tasteful layout and a clear production (especially for a home studio recording) top off this talented, if somewhat bland, release.
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Fear Factory - Obsolete
With each release, FF get worse, but they also get richer and fuck more sluts, so maybe I’m wrong about this whole thing… Just kidding -this is crap.
[Metal Curse #11 had an additional loose page (“Last Second Additions”) inserted into the centerfold of the zine, featuring a bunch of even-shorter-than-usual “bonus” reviews of stuff that arrived after the deadline for that issue. This is one of those “Last Second Additions” reviews.]
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Fates Warning - Still Life
Fates Warning is one of those bands I used to worship, but over the past 15 years they grew softer and softer and thus consequently had to leave their place on my personal altar of Metal. I still listen to their first three albums frequently and so I was quite curious about this live CD. Well, to put it shortly, I’m fucking disappointed. There’s only one song from the old times, and even though it’s badly executed, it still stands out as the best track. They went their way and now play the kind of music you can hear in shopping malls - it’s soooo fucking sad. Listening to releases like this makes me feel my age and all of a sudden suicide seems like a rather nice option.
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Fate - Va Te Faire Enculer
Beyond boring Death Metal.
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The Fartz - Because this Fuckin’ World Still Stinks!
High energy, old-school, sloppy Punk Rock. And they do an insane cover of Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave.”
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