Labels: Robodog
Review by: Tom Hughes
More Robotic Empire metalcore earfuck death here, as you could have come to expect from the label more or less, though if anything maybe upping the ante even further in splurging bastard noise terms. So: spazzing-ankle kickdrums, alternately crunching/sqealing/hammering riffs, ten ton killer mutant bullfrog vocals, all more than proficient but… hmm, y’know, just ‘but’. I’ve given this a fair few listens now and the songs aren’t really sticking… I ain’t asking for pop-punk choruses or nothing here fellas, but even the noisiest, nastiest, most melody-free of great bands manage to stamp something specific on your synapses; this just isn’t achieving that somehow. There’s also the seemingly obligatory one-off diversion song here (it was an eleventh-hour metal-flamenco breakdown in the last Robo one I tried out!!), this time starting out with a little aching minor arpeggio with some bloody bongos on top. I play my petty small-minded punk card and say: no fucking bongos. Do quite like the title and the little story on the sleeve that goes with it though… sets a scene of some busy bar or club, people drinking, dancing away obliviously when a huge explosion goes off and in the panic a load of people get jammed in the revolving doors trying to get out and become melted to the plastic doors by their faces and hands. Uh, so yeah, I liked that bit, for reasons I’m not going to try to work out. Lyrical themes can probably be fairly accurately divined from such – death and gore and fear and pain, the usual merry larks.
So then: for pure deathy metal force and some nasty fleshy imagery, bob on. Just not the most fresh or distinctive noise ever. And bugger all like the Hidden Chord, in case you were wondering.