Captor - Dogface
I don’t think these guys owe as much to Pantera as their bio would have me believe. It’s more than enough for me to not like it, though, but I honestly think they’re closer to a less technological Fear Factory. Either way, it’s still crap, so who cares?
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Cannibal Corpse - Gallery of Suicide
My major complaint with their last slab of Death, Vile, was that it traded in some of the sheer catchiness of The Bleeding for a bit more brutality. It was a good idea at the time, since they likely wanted to prove that losing Chris Barnes wouldn’t water them down. It has only made the band better to be rid of the dead weight. Corpsegrinder is currently by far the better growler. Back to this masterpiece: The Cannibals have wisely rediscovered the perfect song-writing and production of the aforementioned The Bleeding and only lost a touch of the brutality of Vile to do it. That’s a trade I’d be glad to make, too. Plus, the musicianship is just amazing.
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Callenish Circle - Escape
This first release from Holland’s Polar Bear Records is impressive Death/Black Metal in the tradition of [early] In Flames, but somewhat more aggressive.
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Calamus - The Road Trax
Horrible, distorted vocal crap that is somehow also very mellow. Great combination of styles that is. Thankfully there are only two songs here, one of which is accurately called “Piece of Shit.” At least they believe in truth in advertising.
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C.S.S.O. / Mastic Scum - Clitto’s Special Hits / Rape
Each of these two Grind masters deliver four cover songs with C.S.S.O. starting things off with an insane acoustic version of Carcass’ “Genital Grinder,” followed up with just as warped versions of General Surgery, Regurgitate, and Napalm Death songs. Mastic Scum start off their somewhat more obscure selections with a Doctor and the Crippens cover, and blast right through their renditions of Electro Hippies, Unseen Terror, and Righteous Pigs songs. I like the bands and I like the all-covers concept of the EP, so needless to say, this is essential.
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C17H19N03 - 1692/2092 (soundtrack)
I found this in the Metal section of a local record store and after listening to it, I have to say that this was definitely misplaced. This shit isn’t Metal at all. This is Gothic/Industrial. The good news is that Gothic/Industrial tends to make better soundtrack music. And this is some good stuff. I don’t know what 1692/2092 is about, but it certainly has some cool background music. I’m guessing that it’s Science Fiction because a love story doesn’t have music with song titles like “The Room of Ice” (featuring vocals by ex-Swans singer Jarboe!!), “Harvest of Souls” or “The Burning of the Black Waters.” The music is pretty mechanical in the Industrial vein and has a heavy Gothic feeling to it. The prevalent feeling generated is one of mourning or sadness. There are also some creepy moments in here too. If you like movie soundtracks but you hate ones with a bunch of bullshit mainstream songs that you don’t even hear in the fucking movie then you’ll probably like this. The vast majority of it is instrumental and succeeds in conveying the general mood of a given situation (such as the desperation of a chase scene, the ominous feeling you get while walking down a dark corridor or the sadness of seeing a friend’s casket being lowered into the ground). I don’t know what C17H19N03’s regular music sounds like, but after listening to this, I think I’ll look to see if they have any other stuff available.
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By the Grace of God - Perspective
These Hardcore Punks have a lot of good ideas, and start off very strong, but they apparently aren’t able to carry it for a full length release, and this is a really short album (just over a half hour, not counting an interesting poem, and “hidden” audio jerk-off). I would much rather that they take longer to write their LPs, or simply release EPs, because if the whole thing had been as great as the first track, “Boy and the River,” then this would have been a 10.
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Burnt Offering - Walk of the Dead
This kind of real old-school Thrash Metal is not often heard these days, and I utterly respect this band for so clearly ignoring any and all trends to play exactly what they want. Walk of the Dead is as energetic as anything I’ve ever heard, and their cover of “Black Metal” is truly off the scale. I suppose that this album is something of a throwback, but that’s perfectly fine with me. Especially when it’s so well done.
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Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer
Satanic Sludge. Like a blasphemous version of Grief, but not nearly as interesting. I was all set to like this, but it just goes nowhere. And the screams that pass for vocals, although tortured to be sure, are too shrill and sound like a little kid yelling. When he even bothers to scream at all. Sometimes it’s the “originality” of a slow Rock drone, like Ozzy did 371 years ago. I do like good Sludgy stuff, like the aforementioned Grief, or Melvins, not to mention actual Doom of different kinds (Skepticism, or Solitude Aeturnus to name a couple of pretty different bands), and there is clearly a difference between Sludge and Doom, but Burning Witch just doesn’t hold my interest, no matter if Steve Albini produced it or not. It is oppressively heavy, though. It’s odd that BW’s press release says that this “will appeal to fans of Burzum,” when this couldn’t possibly be any more unlike Burzum. Maybe they think that we’re really that stupid, or that if you like Burzum, then you must part with the cash for anything that purports to be “evil.” This is just ridiculous, and I don’t “get” anything about this CD: The boring music, the terrible vocals, the utterly unreadable layout, the unintentionally comedic press release (“Heroin, hate and Black Death!”), wasting all the cash on a well known producer like Albini…. And due to the people involved, I know this will sell its tiny balls off. If you want mega heavy Sludge, there are plenty of bands who do it way better, and don’t claim to be something they’re not. When you do that, it’s called being a poseur, and if I remember the ancient texts of Exodus and Possessed correctly, Lord Satan really hates poseurs. Or to quote S.O.D., “You’re a bunch of poseur, douchbag, faggot, dickless hacks.” I think that sums it up nicely.
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