Oh dear… this is one those albums thats hard as hell to review but oh so fun to listen to… if that doesn’t abode well for Car Bomb (nice name by the way… kinda appropriate) i don’t know what will, so Car Bomb is what i would call a Mathcore band, following the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Psyopus… so lets have a look see.

It all starts off with a bit of a bang with “Pieces of You”, you kinda get a picture right away of what this is all about, the music is a bit more cut and paste than The Dillinger Escape Plan, i mean they have smoother transitions, unlike Car Bomb were most of the time you see cuts between segments in the music, its not too bad cause the segments are pretty rockin, but still … cut and paste, “Gum Under The Table” comes next and a kind of fused death fuzzed metal groove going on into a electronic passage into a hardcorish kind of breakdown… and then… might i say a Meshuggah big wall of sound break… humm very nice.

Well i wont bore everyone by examining every track, suffice to say all of them seem and sound very fresh, they all follow this constant cutting and are very much founded into a more hardcore and harsh foundation, but again with loads of different stuff going around, maybe the most notable track for me is the very awkward “Best Intentions”, the rest is kind of a blazing blur of blasting and jazzing.

So… ok… is it good? txaaaa, i don’t know, like i said above this kind of music is difficult to give it a heads up or down, these boys have skill, but i do understand why a lot of people might not like it, its a bit too cut up, they barely capitalize on good grooves, i guess they seem to be in too much of a hurry to play something else, so yeah if you like weird technical metal maybe Car Bomb is just the right fit.

Official Site Car Bomb (great domain by the way)

Car Bomb - M^6
Car Bomb - His Eyes

// Click Here To Make a Comment

This shit has some of the fastest riffing i have ever heard, although this seems to be based on some form of mathcore, Psyopus tend to walk the same road as the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, combining a turmoil of fast and hard drumming with blazing guitar work and guttural vocals, all in a very technical pack, being their first full length it’s quite the show.

Although i did made some comparisons with The Dillinger Escape Plan, these are 2 different beast, hell i should have said Into The Moat, since Psyopus don’t go for a more eclectic range, even thought it’s quite the chaotic mix, with rapid changes of pace and patterns, it tends to stay in genre with some small intermissions, don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, it’s just boring, even though I’m quite adept to these kinds of music, they don’t seem to capitalize in anything, and doing a 5 minute song with 30 different riffs, with loads of drumming variations with double bass rolls, blast beats or whatever the drummer can think off, doesn’t mean you have a song, or more importantly a good song.

Psyopus does deliver the goods, that’s for sure, this is one heck of a album, trying to stretch the limits is always a good thing in my book, but as i said before it tends to drag on, there are some tracks that stand out, but they don’t stand out enough and after you listen to it cover to cover, your a bit sick of it all, the guitars start sounding all the same, i know it’s not the same riff but the fucking guitars are screeching anyway, a friend of mine said the album just wasn’t tight enough, and after a couple of good listening i understand what he said perfectly.

Psyopus - Death I…

// Click Here To Make a Comment

I had an eye on Dillinger, ever since they released the chaotic metal meets hardcore meets punk meets experimental jazz of “Calculating Infinity”, difficult to ear at first (much like Meshuggah) after a while you start to see the underlying structure and all the little nuances you can always find in these kind of music, “Calculating Infinity” wasn’t without flaws, it had a kind of abrasive void about it, even in all the chaos it was still punk/hardcore and it had all the bad and good things punk and hardcore have, rough and aggressive songs, one dimension vocals, it goes on and on, well “Miss Machine” is here, so let’s have a look see.

First track and first single “Panasonic Youth” you get almost a “stop go” like riffing, that give pass to a mellow passage, to a almost hardcore breakbeat, then another short passage, to a metal meets hardcore finish, this is all intermingled with random riffing and drumming, i won’t try to “analise” more musics, because they are so diverse and sprawl so many genres it’s difficult to pinpoint “what is what”, so i’ll just give highlights, and you’ll decide for yourselves, next “Sunshine The Werewolf” as all the makings of “Panasonic Youth”, although at the same time it’s completely different, the seeming chaotic approach just gets friendlier with every passing moment, common jazz like smoothing passages to highlight the more hardcore/punk chaotic riffing, so i check the rest of the album and you have more industrial metal variations on “Highway Robbery”, “Unretrofied” and the toned down “Phone Home”, to more chaos hardcore from “Van Damsel” and “The Perfect Design”, and of course you have the more calm or as i like to say “contained chaos with calm passages so we can make a video for mtv” tracks, like “Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants” or maybe “Baby’s First Coffin”.

So is “Miss Machine” any good? Well i think so, even though all tracks on “Calculating Infinity” were unique and the same thing happens here, i like to think that this case of music you should always try to branch out as far as you can, anything less would be to limiting, and it seems Dillinger did that and some more, sure there are some tracks that could have been “zapped” with a little more juice, but hey you can’t drink orange juice all day long, or can’t you?

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Panasonic Youth

// Click Here To Make a Comment