Arguably Dillinger Escape Plan pioneered the crazy mathcore sub genre of hardcore creating an explosion of outfits all trying to outdo each other in terms of manic hyper technicality and packing more riffs, hooks and leads per five second break than most heavy metal bands do in their entire careers. This is all well and good if the structuring and flow of the songs works, which for many bands of this ilk it doesn’t, coming across as a handful of musicians all playing independently of each other during a so called song.

I don’t know many bands from Turkey with only brutal death metallers Cenotaph and thrashers Electrocute coming to mind and being very different to the intriguingly named Chopstick Suicide which conjured up various Monty Pythonesque images in my warped imagination. Chopstick Suicide have a couple of other releases which I’ve not heard but I suspect they are very similar to “Lost Fathers And Sons” which kicks off with macho vocal bellowing set within a frenzied riff assault. The lightning riff detonations are tempered by some very strange guitar fusions and clean vocals. In places the riffing borders technical death metal with only the drumming denying it fully. The vocals need another mention as occasionally they have a strained grunge style like a zombie version of Kurt Cobain. Into “The Chalk And The Matter” and it’s business as usual with Converge guitar brutality and Pig Destroyer snare carnage. Again the fusion elements make for a weird but interesting diversion from the head caving mania on display.

“Shores Are Not For Vacancies” is a little straighter with hardcore riffing and a much denser almost death metal like double kick beat. The insertions of manic grind facets only serve to remind you that this is a crazy album though this tune is probably the least berserk on the album. The tunefulness remains on “Television Television” with a blast and grind approach interspersed with acoustic sections and a massive breakdown with complimentary guitar whine. As with all bands in this genre each song is saturated with time changes and riffs but where this band stands one step further forward is the quirky guitar runs that are added to virtually every song such as the Spanish guitar style and very subtle hand claps it seems in “Small People, Broken Glasses”. The longest tune at over eight minutes is “Your Average Hero” which shifts the bands sound to something more like The End or NINE or even the milder side of Cult Of Luna. The slower beat has a stoner feel and a progressive persona as the song keeps the speed reined very much in. Closing tune is “Kolpa” and reminded me of Kvelertak’s riffing battery and machine gun snare demolition. This is resolutely for fans of bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, Converge, Norma Jean etc.

6.5/10 (Martin Harris)

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