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A good deal of hostility, but a bit repetitive with idol-worship concepts.-
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| Vise Massacre: Expendable Humans |
Groove Metal, Hardcore
Gorilla the Horse Records
January 10th, 2012
- Paralyzer - 1:35
- Bloodsucker - 2:22
- Eyes of Fire - 1:22
- Hail to the Wicked - 2:07
- Something Like Silence - 3:29
- MTA - 2:14
- Pushed Down - 2:26
- Internal War - 1:47
- Shark Intentions - 2:01
- Stranger - 2:51
- Winter Kills - 1:58
- Kill the Survive - 2:10
- Brain Decay - 2:10
- Rising Tide - 3:29
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| Review Information |
Release length: 32:01
Review posted on January 5th, 2012
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| | Overall Score: 6.5/10 |
 
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Expendable Humans (2012)
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| Review |
| CORRECTION TO REVIEW. PLEASE NOTE |
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For some reason the program I use to type out my reviews did not save this one properly. Instead, the review was posted unfinished and for some reason I didn't notice this. The /10 and 1 star rating is NOT the official score, but an unedited template I use for all Metal review pages. The proper score and remark in quotes under the album artwork have been loaded. A big thank you to Dave over at Earsplit PR for finding this mistake. |
With the growing amount of bands doing the whole Groove Metal thing, especially in the Metalcore field now, it's almost impossible to not sit back and assume it wouldn't affect other styles. Sure, Pro-Pain has been throwing it into their Hardcore sound for ages, but for the most part it never really took off to the point that other interactions of the hybrid sound have reached. Enter Vise Massacre. The band hails from Brooklyn, and finds their debut full-length album, Expendable Humans, released under Gorilla the Horse Records, a label which I simply could not find any record of on-line, leading one to assume it's just self-released with a made up label attached to it. But, with so many independent efforts available and on the rise, does this one show the best of this album release approach, or are we in for a really bad release?
As you might have guessed, the release has a pretty raw quality to it that ends up giving the music a bit of a muffled sound. The guitars actually have a higher pitch to them that ends up giving the release a bit of a technical atmosphere in a Dillinger Escape Plan sort-of way, while the bass also stays higher up in pitch, though far from being a twanging performance. It gives the music a slight edge, but it's the drum kit that capitalizes on a bit of a deeper sound. The bass kicks have a pretty deep click to them that are drowned out against some mid-pitched snares that are pretty loud and can often come off like gun fire, as well as cymbals that are a little under a matching volume. The vocals here are your typical shouting approach, but they feel a little bland, and can sometimes come off a little amateurish by sticking to the most simplistic of vocal patterns throughout the release.
The music on Expendable Humans can be described as the aforementioned Dillinger Escape Plan with a hint of Meshuggah. The drumming here often feels out of time with the guitars, which for the most part end up either played really simplistic material, or tighter, more technical chords. However, there's a good amount of time when it just feels boring, and coupled with the ill-fitting vocals and how systematic they feel. Given that there's fourteen songs and just over thirty-two minutes for the album, that's not a good thing, especially when "Paralyzer" doesn't really start off too impressive. This song, and many other that follow really do have a great deal of energy, but for the most part it ends up coming off pretty simple with random more technical moments. "Bloodsucker" doesn't offer that much in the line of complex material either, again finding much of the song to be simplified riffs in a more Math sense of performance, but this slower track does allow the bass to come through a little better and work to create a somewhat heavier song that feels absolutely aggressive with some additional variety in the vocals, even though that comes in the form of studio alteration, and overall just feels a lot heavier in comparison with a ruthless aggression that this raw sound needs.
But, while even "Paralyzer" and on are still decent tracks, it's "Something Like Silence" that really starts to show the problems the band has in their performance. The vocals again feel robotic, but to the point of coming off amateurish, and the music itself starts to show similar traits of earlier songs are far as technicality goes. The outro here works nicely to bleed into "MTA," which does allow for a really different change of pace. The chords here often give the song a hint of melody that you expect clean singing to join, but instead you are given energetic, often layered vocals that suit the technical Groove influenced performance perfectly. The song's additional hint of Punk rebellion, which shows up more towards the end of the song, really shows the potential that the group does have hidden away. That slight Punk touch also shows up during "Brain Decay," and it's a welcome addition to the song and it's more mid-tempo Groove Metal pace. Another song worth looking at is "Stranger," another slower paced track that doesn't really stand out as much as "Bloodsucker," but it's slower pace really feels dark and sinister in some ways, and the suiting less energetic vocals work well for the song too.
Overall, while Expendable Humans does have a good deal of flaws overall in some rather bland material, robotic vocals, and some technical elements getting repetitive early on in the album, it is still an enjoyable album to an extent due to the energy the band brings with them. It's far from a horrible album for its style, but it's easily the most simplistic offering, even when just sticking with the technical Math Metal/Mathcore concepts of the aforementioned Dillinger Escape Plan. There are some really good tracks here, like those mentioned in the review, and some others that are worth experiencing if this style is your thing, but the bottom line is that there are plenty of other bands out there that you could be listening to instead. Vise Massacre does have some potential, and it does show from time to time on this release, so it's worth taking note of the group and maybe sampling it a bit where you can.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Gorilla the Horse Records
via Earsplit PR. |
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