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Vampire Mooose continue to bring their intense Groove Metal sound they issued on their debut self-titled album back in 2003 once again for their third full-length effort, The Reel. Not much has changed over the years, and the band is starting to show a pattern as far as the release date goes, being a little more then three years apart from each album. The only difference here is that the distortion on the vocals seems to be just a little less intense, which in some cases actually takes away from makes Vampire Mooose such a great, and slightly humorous, Metal act. However, this still doesn't change the fact that The Reel is still an intense thrill ride with music heavy enough to pound your skull in. And that's what the true essence of Vampire Mooose is all about, right? While the lyrics and sometimes the audio snippets used on their albums do bring in an element of humour, as well as touch on comic books and films, the music is simply intense between furious drums and heavily distorted pounding guitars and vocals. These elements are best showcased on the tracks "Pan.demon.ium", as well as "Pot Pie" which is easily the most intense track off the entire album. As usual, the audio snippets are still present on this album, but are actually used a little more then normal. Not only does the album start off with a highly appropriate audio sample from an old b-film for "Intro" that has the actors discussing the dreaded moose that could apparently pick them right out of the tree if it wanted, as well as an absolutely hysterical clip that acts as a parody of inappropriate content that would appear prior to a film on "One Arm Jake" just to name a few that matter. The rest really feel tacked on with no real importance whatsoever outside the introduction to the title track "The Reel" simply because it's a general statement that would appear prior to a film, much like that of "One Arm Jake", but not as vulgar or sarcastic, more like a general cornfed introductory speech. The Reel also seems to go back to the first album as far as the sound of the songs. The previous album, Serenade the Samurai seemed to depart slightly from the material on their self-titled debut, coming off a little weaker in comparison. However, The Reel not only throws back to the album with the track "Spider-Man Vs. Venom 2", essentially being a continuation of the first song, even though the music is a whole new song in it's self, but you can hear traces of some of the band's more popular songs from their first album appearing here and there on this release. The only time it will really stick out will be during the song "Pan.demon.ium" which seems to take from the song "Colonize" and build off that. The opening to "La Tumba" can also be traced back to the song "Khali Ma", branching off into a different direction that, sadly, is not as intense as the base song, and around the time that the album starts to lose it's edge. The rest of the album either seems a little more tame then everything prior to "La Tumba", or brings in a bit of an African feel, such as with the track "Angra Mainyu". Again, with "Angra Mainyu" we find the band going back to the "Khali Mah" sound from their first album to kick the song off, but then drops into a more Mudvayne Mallcore sound that sounds something off their first two releases with very low clean singing against the rhaspier shouting vocals. This is by far the most obscure track off the album, and easily the worst as it's extremely unoriginal and destroys what little flow is left on the album that "Lions of Whoa" managed to keep. "The Reel" does try to bring everything back into perspective but, much like "Lions of Whoa", simply doesn't work. Sadly, the closing tracks on the album seem to limp along like a dying animal that refuses to give up, reaching the end of it's lifespan with "Drayton Sowyer" like it's trying to get a second wind, but the build up to it is so long winded that by the time it happens, all hope is lost. Had the album stopped at "Lions of Whoa", it could have been a salvagable ending to a rather impressive follow up release. Sadly, this is not the case. The Reel is an impressive album that doesn't really stray from the band's already established sound, but still has a few tracks at the end that really come off as filler and could have been left out. Outside the closing five songs, the rest of the album is intense and, while a few songs here and there may have some small glitches like a lack of too much distortion, it's still a superb release that requires your attention, and once it has it, refuses to let go for as long as it can, which turns out to be quite a lot due to the first seven tracks being so well done you'll keep coming back for more. |
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