A CD! An actual CD with artwork and a booklet and everything! In a world of downloads once I picked the CD off my hallway floor I also picked myself up at the shock. The fact that this is brutal death metal from France on physical format added to the excitement.
The artwork is like a mash up of the movies Paul and The Hills Have Eyes as rendered by AI and, if the Parental Advisory sticker stating “Shitty Content” didn’t hint at the puerile humour the stark statement on the inner cover “Retarded Music for Retarded People” certainly cements it.
So this 80’s throwback silliness and shlock “edginess” got my ears ready for the 8 tracks on offer from these French Death heads. There are lyrics but the font is so small my aged eyes are struggling and the headache I want is from big riffs not eye strain.
If you are interested in the subject matter the songs are about shit and horror and aliens, and having sex with cannibal aliens (or Cannibaliens if you will) all based on or named after infamous characters from history. There seems to be a theme of aliens visiting Earth and encountering murderers and perverts to do a David Attenborough on them.
The production is a little muddy with the vocals a little too far in the mix for my liking (spot the vocalist reviewer). However, I am pleasantly surprised at the song writing and variety on offer in this unflushed bog full of smelly delights.
“Albert Fish and Chips” opens with bog (tee hee) standard brutal Death Metal with some nice slower slam breaks to raise your hammers to. It is a little long at 4:41 but the tech death and proggy elements towards the end will appeal to many a modern DM fan. It seems a little at odds with their “Dumb party Death“ schtick but it is pretty groovy.
“Paul’s Thrower” has a false quick start before pulling back the throttle for a sludgy slab of nastiness before then lurching A.D.H.D. like into some dissonant guitar lead and a Black Metal blast. Bit messy. “Jared the Subway Guy” that follows is also eclectic with some off the wall funky bass sections which give off a whiff of Primus and Faith No More and some Nu Metal breaks. I start to feel dizzy with all the genre and direction changes.
“Simon the Toilet Beast” seems to be based on the shit demon of Golgotha from Dogma. Great thrash riffs and dirty rumbling vocals before the slap bass returns. Not sure what it adds. Comical BM style vocals join with what sounds like Alvin and Chipmunks at the end. Hmmmm.
“Chuck No Risk” is a bit better – techy death with some great slam parts. Still a few comedy sounding guitar bits that stick out like throbbing hammer smashed thumbs.
“Derek Your Neighbour is a Paranoiac Guy Who Saw Aliens” is not as daft as the title suggests. Sure some of the alien “wibble effects” are a little superfluous but at its heart this is a barbed wire Brutal Death metal glove to the testes/vulva.
Final two tracks “Kevin” and “Henri De Chissian” are in turn a chugging mid paced thumper and fast paced gurgling slammathon like quicklime and molten flesh swirling round a plug hole.
All told there is a lot more right with this debut than I expected. Some of the “extras” get in the way of some good tracks and some of the guitar solos could have joined the flesh in the plughole. All that being said this is well worth a spin – just don’t expect your attention to be locked in for the whole 35 minutes as even Upper Decker’s wasn’t.
(6/10 Matt Mason)
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