«
»
Reviews, Scraping Genius Off The Wheel

BLEEDER’S DIGEST: QUICKIE REVIEWS OF NEW RELEASES FROM ANIMA & NATIVE

 Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 2:30pm by

Anima, Enter The Killzone
As many of you know, I’m one of the few people writing for this site willing to give some positive attention to deathcore. With forthcoming albums from Oceano and Rose Funeral still on the horizon in 2010, I thought I might get my quick fix of pig squeals and breakdowns from this, the sophomore album from Anima on Metal Blade. Regrettably, Enter The Killzone sounds like a copy-and-paste job lacking any serious effort to actually write songs, all the more astounding given death metal’s already low threshold. Here you’ll find all the familiar deathcore markers, ticked off as if on a checklist. The triggered drums grate on my patience even more than my ears, and the guitarist proves incapable of crafting a half-decent breakdown. The song titles–”Cu(n)t & Twist” and “The Omnipotent Torture King”, for example–frequently rely on torture porn schlock, another testament to Anima’s complete and utter lack of creativity. “XXXIII”, an apparent attempt at a Winds Of Plague epic, kicks off like the score of a Vincent Price B-movie and gets even worse from there. By deathcore standards, this is a remarkably piss poor showing.

(1 out of 5 horns)

Native, Wrestling Moves
With so many fledgling metalcore bands carelessly mislabeling their indeterminate, inconsequential music as “post-hardcore”, it’s invigorating to come across a new act that actually follows the example of Dischord Records groups like Fugazi and Hoover. Sure, Native may employ screamed vocals (not unlike those of At The Drive-In’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala) over their angular musical mix, yet to brand them screamo would be downright insulting given the high quality of tracks like “Backseat Crew” and “Shirts And Skins.” Save for a somber reprieve on “Five Year Payoff,” the songs generally boast the same formula, and while it’s a damn good one, that makes Wrestling Moves less potent than it could have been. Still, if what the kids today call “emo” makes you want to firebomb a Hot Topic, Native might keep you occupied long enough until the FBI arrives to arrest you.

(3 out of 5 horns)

-GS

Tags: , ,
  • Andy Synn

    I still believe that “deathcore” CAN be done well. It is however so prevalent and easy to write that too many bands see it as the easy path and head off down it quite happily bereft of any real inspiration or direction.

    What’s worse is that large sections of the press jump on the sugar-rush “br00tality” and overly triggered drums (let’s be honest lads, i’ve seen you play… you do a lazy one handed snare roll with ghost notes which your triggers translate into blastbeats, while you hit your kick drums with all the energy of a sedated toddler) and promote it as a good thing? Seriously. I blame the drummers.

    There is good “deathcore” though. There is. Somewhere. And if nothing else it often leads to a jumping off point where these abnds, having learned a few of the secrets of this trade we call “metal” develop into something better.

    • Alex_P

      The Red Chord and early the Faceless. All you fucking need, bro.

  • GoingDeaf?

    Not to destroy anyone’s fantasy, but metal drummers have been using triggers since the 80′s. The key difference is that today the drum hits are mostly “replaced” instead of “layered” with samples. The reality is, you simply cannot play double-bass and blast-beat snare at today’s speeds with any kind of consistent power. Both the kick and snare techniques for these beats involve minimal movement which = minimal power. With the thickness of modern guitar and bass tones, the drums would be completely buried during these parts.

    • Alex_P

      That’s a pretty well-known fact. The quality of the drum sound depends entirely on the quality of the producer.

      • Andy Synn

        Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that TRIGGERS = BAD (as is the traditional argument), but jsut again to state that I have witnessed a LOT of the following phenomenon recently :

        Drummer playing awesome blast-beat… trigger cuts out… drummer is revealed to be lazily rolling stick down snare so as to “fake” blasting.

        Sorry about the confusion – the point is that triggers, I have no problem with, like anything they can be used well. It’s just that my bullshit detector has reached saturation point seeing so many bands use triggers not to accentuate their sound, but to cover up for sloppy playing and technique. We have a drummer. He’s very good. He plays well and with legitimate skill. Any use of triggers (not that we’ve done so yet) will simply help normalise the live sound (let’s face it, live metal gigs are in themselves a very artificial experience in many ways).

        In summary – I am tired of people being impressed by triggers used to cover-up bad technique. Now kick triggers DO often expose bad footwork, BUT certain drummers do definitely learn how to play softly and accurately, but ONLY with triggers and are hamstrung without them.

        Rant over. I promise.

        Rant completed.

        • GoingDeaf?

          No argument here… triggers should never be a substitute for good technique. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to achieve the modern metal sound without triggers and samples…. so we’re going to be hearing this shit for a while… that and beat detective… can anyone really tell the difference between different drummers anymore?

          Sorry to not really be on topic, but does Anima even deserve conversation? I’ll check out Native when I get a chance… sounds good as described.

    • evilfatguy

      I’d like you to watch/hear Derek Roddy and/or George Kollias play what they do on their non-triggered kits and I will watch you eat the malignancies that you call “words”. The difference isn’t in production, it’s purely in skill and conditioning of the drummer, and someone who can tune a drum. When I run a session, sound replacement/triggering is my LAST RESORT; I’ve told drummers to go home and practice blasting for two weeks because I wasn’t happy with their quality/consistency enough to record them.
      I personally know more than a handful of drummers who aren’t in big bands, but who practice at least 20 hours per week, who can play at a metronome maxed out with very consistent power and precision.

      • GoingDeaf?

        Both those dudes use triggers…. what’s your point again, mad malignancy guy?

  • Alex_P

    I saw Anima on MetalBlade’s iPool, and I was like “Oh, fuck no”. We run two of my reviews a month max, so I’m not wasting time on shit like this unless there’s a request for it.

  • danknugs

    Native fucking rule, glad to see they’re getting some coverage on MS.

  • permafrost

    A few weeks ago at the record store where I work part-time, I had thrown the ANIMA cd on along with the new Aborted ep and a few other cds, but lost track of which would play first. As the day went on, ANIMA came on, but for some reason I thought “Hmmm. Must be the new Aborted.”… I figured it out not long after that it wasn’t Aborted, because Aborted are actually good.

    • Andy Synn

      Well said.