JUSTIN’S METAL REVIEWS W/C 28/7/08

 

SOULFLY / CONQUER

 

This is Soulfly’s 6^th album and the band are in fine form, the Metal is as heavy as it gets, they are more focused than ever before and they have kept the experimentation in their songs but integrated it in such a way that it doesn’t distract from the power of the songs.

 

To my ears this is the best Soulfully album since “Back To The Primitive” and in most ways is superior because of the reasons above, take the track “Paranoia” for instance, it has everything that Soulfly stands for, power, energy and brutality but still manages to pull in influences outside the Metal genre that Soulfly have all sways done but better and that’s the albums strength.  It not just confined to one trick either as “Unleash”, “Doom” and “Enemy Ghost” and the superb “For Those About To Rot”.  If you liked Soulfly but didn’t like the Reggae or Jazz flavoured tracks that seemed to break the alums energy up you will find “Conquer” more to your taste as the none Metal elements are still there, they are just done with more style.  The instrumental Soulfly 6 lets the band stretch their musical envelope to the Max, (pun not intended) and it’s good to hear them still doing it.

 

The digipak has 3 extra tracks, a cover versions of Marilyn Manson’s, “Beautiful People”, Bad Brains “Sail On” and a Soulfly track called “Mypath”, listen out for “Warmageddon”, “Fall Of The Sycophants” and “Touching The Void”.  This special edition also has a 15 track Live in Washington 2003 DVD plus the 3 extra tracks and is well worth getting.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.soulfly.com/ & http://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/

 

TOTAL PLAYING TIME = 71 mins + 14 STORMING TRACKS

 

 

AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE / TOTAL BRUTAL

 

There are two things wrong with this bands name, 1, there not Austrian, 2, they are more Thrash than Death but the total, brutal is smack on, as that describes the musical stance amicably.

 

 ADM is actually a side project by the front man of As I Lay Dying (Tim Lambesis ) and is a Metal tribute to the screen works of the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger and all the song titles come from lines from his films, this is all done with great respect and humour.  How can you resist song titles like, “Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers”, “Get To The Chopper”, “If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It” or the superb snappy song title like “Am A Cybernetic Organism, Living Tissue Over (Metal) Endoskeleton”, try singing this with a bad Austrian accent, Tim does and it superb.  There are a number of funny links in-between songs like “Why” and “Band Practice” that lighten the mood of this CD and make it fun to listen too.

 

Considering this is a spoof, like the Cannabis Corpse album it works really well on a musical level and proves that Metal bands don’t have to take themselves too seriously to make good Metal, you will buy this CD or get erased, you have been warned, I’ll be back.

 

WEBSITE      http://www.myspace.com/austriandeathmachine & http://www.metalblade.co.uk/

 

TOTAL RECALL TIME = 39 mins + 17 TRACKS