Another Brick In A Pretty Solid Wall

Band: Hour of Penance

Album: Sedition

Genre: Technical Brutal Death Metal

I'll be upfront right off - I haven't listened to all that much of Hour of Penance's work.  That being said, I know when I hear technicality, along with brutality.  Hour of Penance happens to hold both of those things near and dear to their hearts.  On Sedition, the band takes a full-force approach to some in-your-face, speedy technical death metal.  Is it any good?  Does the band settle for speed over structure?  I guess you'll just have to keep reading.

Sedition being the bands fifth full-length studio album, is a very rich album, with much to gain from listening.  The band exhibits musical discipline both in their writing and performing. I can honestly say there isn't one bad song on this album.  One of my problems, especially with technical death metal, is that bands have a tendency to write fast and technical for a three or four minute track.  That'd make sense, holding true to the nature of the genre, but what most bands fail to recognize (or do recognize and choose to ignore) is that the song still has to go somewhere regardless of how fast the song is.  Sedition holds some of the most well-paced technical brutal death songs I have heard in a long time.  

One of the things that makes the songs, and in turn, the album flow so well is the structure of each and every song.  While the band doesn't sell themselves short, playing all of the "widdly-diddly's" that other tech-death bands, such as Necrophagist, they aim more for a wall of sound.  Every song sounds like it's own solid "block" if you will.  The drums are the overall foundation of each "block," as they are constantly blasting throughout the whole album, yet still maintain to keep the beats fresh and technical.  The guitars are blisteringly fast and share similar qualities to the drums in that they are continually speeding through at a fast rate - Yet it sounds so fucking good.  The implementation of two guitars allows the band to have that aggressive "wall of sound" sound, while still being able to expand and build the song up more with various solos and strange passages with the other said guitar.  I can't say much about the bass guitar though, as I had a pretty hard time hearing it.  There are moments of audibility for the instrument, but as a whole, it got drowned out in the mix, which is pretty disappointing considering how much each of the other members display their skill on this album.  I'd love to hear what the bassist is fully capable of.  Some tracks to keep your ears open for would include "Enlightened Submission," "Fall of the Servants," and "Deprave to Redeem."

One thing that was somewhat of a significant let-down on Sedition is the fact that there were no slams on the album at all.  I take that back.  Maybe one or two.  Now, I'm not saying that if there aren't slams, I don't like it.  But as far as the genre goes, it's technical brutal death metal.  While the album is a power-house of brutality, I'd heard hype about these guys being technical and slammy.  It was definitely a little disappointment, though the album stands on it's own enough to be unbridled by the lack of any apparent slams.

With the exception of not being able to hear the bass that well, I'd say the overall production of this album is stellar.  Where the band is playing faster, more blunt-force, aggressive music, having the mix and production be too muddled would have been the downfall of this album.  Thankfully, the sound is crystal clear.  All the rhythms on the guitars are distinguishable.  The drums have a great sound to them.  The vocals are mixed in well with the rest of the instruments.

Overall, this is one damn good album.  Great structure, sound, and musicianship make this album stand in the foreground of technical death metal.  It's not the best, and it's certainly not the worst, but if you pick this album up, I can guarantee it'll be playing over in your CD/MP3 player a few times over.  If you're newer to the band like I am, I'd recommend you to check the album out.  If you're a fan, then I can imagine you will be deeply pleased by the release.

Score: 7.5/10

Can Heavy-Weights of Death Metal Keep It Going?

Band: Cannibal Corpse

Album: Torture

Genre: Death Metal

If you inhabit planet Earth, whether you're a fan or not, you've probably heard of Cannibal Corpse.  With a career now spanning around 24 years, and their 12th full-length out now, one would have to ask themselves if Cannibal Corpse still has it or not.  The answer is going to vary drastically depending on who you ask.  Some would say that they just keep getting better and better, producing a newly heightened sense of brutality and gore with every album.  That's where I come in.  I'm here to say fuck all that shit.  Lets jump into the pro's and con's of Torture.

Lets be honest with ourselves right off the back, here.  It's been a while since Cannibal Corpse has peaked.  That's not to say that they haven't released some noteworthy material since that time, but Cannibal Corpse was at their best when it was Barnes behind the mic (The mere thought of crediting Chris Barnes with something positive still makes me feel like a bad person).  With the loss of Chris and the addition of George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher upon the release of their fifth studio album, Vile, the band took a turn for the more structured song/album writing approach.  And, when I say "structured," I mean that pretty much every song on every album has started to sound the same, thus turning the album into nothing more than a minimal advance upon the band. 

Does Torture follow said structure?  You betcha'! But, that's not to say all was lost on this album.  It still has that Cannibal Corpse sound (which is good), and though the album has it's fair share of bland and boring songs ("Demented Aggression," "Encased in Concrete"), there were a few that proved worthy of a listen.  The overall guitar-work in "Intestinal Crank" is pant-shittingly awesome.  It's such a groovy song all the way through, and it avoids one of the biggest downfalls of this album - Trying to be too fast!  Torture more than other releases in recent time shows the band trying to take a more fast and aggressive approach to death metal.  The song-writting and overall product suffers.  This isn't to say Cannibal Corpse hasn't ever made good fast music. But it is to say that at this point in the band's career, it's growing old.

As far as sound goes on this album, I thought that the guys did some good things coming out of Evisceration Plague, an album I didn't really care for in the least.  The guitar tones more than anything bothered me the most on that album.  I mean, yeah, they sounded heavy, but there was an overall thin an crisp quality to their tones.  It didn't fit the band as well as it should have.  O'Brien and Barrett seem to have beefed up their tones for this album, giving it a much heavier and more traditional death metal sound.

Overall, I'd say that this album is nothing more than another installment in Cannibal Corpse's career.  At this point, they are just doing what they do.  Like it or not, Cannibal Corpse isn't changing.  If you're a die-hard fan, then I'm sure you'll find enjoyment out of the CD.  But, for a new-comer to death metal, I'd highly recommend checking out some of the bands earlier releases.

Score: 6.5/10

Brutality + Technicality - Filler

Artist: 7 H. TargetAlbum: "Fast-Slow Demolition"Genre: Technical Brutal Death Metal
Ahh, nothing like some technical Russian slams to start the day off right.  That's correct, folks!  Today we are talking about 7 H. Target's first full-length opus, "Fast-Slow Demolition."  The album is a combination of their first six-track EP entitled "Japan Body Hammer"(re-recorded of course), along with what appear to be six newly composed/recorded tracks.  Lets dive right in and see what makes "Fast-Slow Demolition" so slam-fucking-tastic!
Granted I haven't delved too far into the sub-genre of "slam" or "slamming brutal death metal," but I'd like to think I have a generalized enough understanding to write this album a justified review.  While listening to the genre, some of the more die-hard fans go for the non-sensical, full-force, non-stop slamming that such bands like Abominable Putridity utilized their first full-length album.  Others prefer to have more "substance," if you will, to their music - Some musicianship that surpasses that extent of brutal chugging.  7 H. Target seems to have crafted a peaceful in between to appeal to almost any fan of either technical playing or slow slamming music.  
As one may guess by the title of the album, and, well, the paragraph I wrote just before this one, the album contains both is fast and slow segments - Both of which are sure to blow your mind.  First lets talk about the fast attributes of the album.  The albums and instruments blast with such intensity and technicality, it's almost scary to think of how these guys came up with this music.  The music is brazenly original and proves that while these guys may have some simplistic aspects to their music, they are more than capable of busting out the big guns to impress.  The riffs written for the guitar are confusingly tight and oddly timed, while the drums hold a speedy, organized rhythm behind everything else that is happening on the album.  The bass has its own unique place on this album as well.  Though not audible at all times, the vocalist/bassist implements skill and an instrumental understanding to his contribution on the album.  
Now that we have got the fast part of the album out of the way, how about the slow? What can be said about the slams on this album?  Not much.  Other than they are heavy as all shit, and will continually please your ear-drums.  The slams hold much rhythm and groove which give the album such a heavy feel, you are unsure if you'll be able to make it through the 38:28 running time of the album without soiling yourself.
Though I'm having trouble finding lyrics to go along with the album, I have to say that the theme of the album is pretty kick-ass.  The album seems to hold some Techno-Sexual overtones with songs like "Drill Penis," "Metal + Flesh," and, well, "Technosex."  The science-fiction over-tones of both the written and recorded music reminded me vaguely of Gigan.  The band draws influence off of other media outlets as well, naming one of their songs "KSC2 - 303" after the character in the Japanese film "Versus."  These elements give the album a true brutal death feel, as they use a good amount of film samples from movies I'm assuming are in high regard (at least on a cult status) around their region.
While the music is all fine and dandy, you may be wondering about the production value of the album.  It's certainly no Opeth album where you can hear just about every strum of a string, and it's certainly not a muddled piece of brutal death metal shit.  The production is just low quality enough to give the album a true brutal death metal sound, and just clean and professional enough to hear the technicality in the music.  To put it simply, you're going to dig the production of the album if you are interested in the genre at all.  
All this being said, I wouldn't recommend this to someone who is just getting into slam, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to expand their extreme musical horizons.  The album holds a lot of diversity and originality that you won't find in many other places - Especially in the genre of slam/BDM.  Get your hands on this as soon as possible!
Score: 8/10