| Various - Kill Your Management | Riffmaster General - We Like That |
| Spectral Forge |
|
Psycophonic
Various Available from 7 Harcourt St,
Shelton, Stoke On Trent, Staffs, ST1 4NP, UK |
||
|
This is a compilation of demo tracks from Psychophonic Records, featuring primarily (all?) UK bands. As you would probably expect, the quality on the 17 tracks varies significantly, from the dull sounds and poor production of Karab, to the more complete sounds of Razorwire, All Life Ends, and Kane, which takes a more rock approach than the rest of the CD. Karab's Anger Within really is pitiful, and I'm surprised it made it onto the CD. It's awful droning doom/death and has no merits at all. It sounds like it's recorded through a wee shitty 20 watt Peavy combo overdriven to the max - and believe me, I know how bad that sounds!!. Thankfully some of the tracks are actually rather good, such as Cicada's Blunt, Matter's Underground, All Life Ends' Forgotten, Razorwire's Liar, and Kane's Unspoken which is probably the best track on the CD. Even the cheesy Cruel Humanity with Dragon-mist is kind of interesting with its (over)use of flanged vocals and keyboards to fill out the sound. In general it's actually a very good sampling of the UK underground, with very few really poor tracks and quite a few shining lights. Verdict: If you like to discover new bands, you could do a lot worse. |
|||
|
|||
Riffmaster General
|
 |
||
|
What can I say about this, except top quality. Respect goes to the guys. We Like That is a great fun track, which reminds me of Therapy?. It is well written, well played, well produced, short and to the point. Exactly what it should be. Basically, it rules! The other track Bloody Vengeance is also pretty good, though not in the same league. It starts off like a Pantera ballad, and continues on for six and a half minutes. While it does not have the hooks or class of the title track, it's still fairly solid. I have to say though, it's worth money just for the title track alone. What works so well for We Like That is that it is just a fun song. Bloody Vengeance is too serious, and cheesy because of it. They should stick to the fun songs. Verdict: Fantastic for three minutes, then OK for six. Great cover. |
|||
|
|||
| Spectral Forge | ||
|
This review comes hot on the heals of Sacred Sin, so for a brief moment I actually quite liked it. Then I realised it's only a comparative thing. I can't imagine anyone liking this ill-conceived thrash/black metal combo, though despite its failings there is the odd interesting section that grabs interest. Also the idea of keeping it to two tracks gains some respect from me. Verdict: Below par. |
||
|
