Following their return in 2020 with the awesome “Fracmont”, this Swiss Death/Thrash band made a big impact after being away so long, bringing out the glory days of their Noise records releases. However, the band return after some line-up changes, and a death of former vocalist at quite a young age. Battling on, the band come back with a follow up with their new line up.
On my first couple of listens, I haven’t really found much to shout about if I am truthful, there are good moments, a lot of sound samples, and a general muddiness in the production which loses some of the instruments in the mix, especially the vocals; more notable of decent headphones, on older stereos with sounds brighter. ‘Speed Sucker Romance’ is anything but fast, it’s a slow burner, lots of power, this suits the muddy production and it actually has a sound of some Cathedral material. On a more positive note, ‘Centipede Bites’ is a fresher sound with more vigour, that is much more in line with their back catalogue, with a few repeatable groovy elements of this style 15-20 years ago. ‘Soul Observatory’ follows a similar path but represents a change of character in the arrangement when it slows down briefly. Taking on the death/thrash tag more so is ‘Acid Fish’. I like the faster moments, not too been on the groove pieces.
‘Sikhote Alin’ starts out a little spooky with clean guitars and sound samples, then develops into the style of the former comeback release. A nice energetic death/thrash combination. I’m not overtly keen on the “breakdown” bits (I’m not referring to the acoustic bits I might add!), it’s very modern Melo-death in places, but then again the augmented bits take you to the Scandinavian plane, I can see where the effort is focusing, but I do fell the lyrics are a little lost again. Im surprised the number countdown didn’t stop of six six six as I have heard countless times before, this one goes to zero!
‘Christus Hypercubus’ is a real groove thrasher, I like the lead break about 2 minutes in, but I can’t hear it, its lost behind the rhythm section. ‘The Venus Baroness I’ in places has some undecipherable vocals, whether this be by effect or natural recording state, it’s hard to follow. Musically, it’s a simple beat moving along, but it’s moving along in a comfortable fashion, it doesn’t spark too hard. For ‘The Venus Baroness II’ the sound sample is blasted away with the musical intro, more stomach level vocals and much more in the death metal spectrum.
For me, it’s nowhere near the former album or the legacy, it doesn’t have so much vibrancy and I feel hampered by the production in quite a few places. Of course, bands move on, a retro release isn’t what I am hankering for here, I genuinely feel that the “sound focus” is lost in the mix, not so much the style of the songs presented.
(6/10 Paul Maddison)
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