Internecine
The Book of Lambs
Hammerheart
Holy crap! Hold on to your seats, because The Book of Lambs is pure unadulterated speed/death/math metal, replete with a flurry of blast beats, lightning fast buzzsaw riffs, and completely convincing growls and screams! Whole lee crap!
Most of you are aware that this is essentially Jared’s (Hate Eternal/Morbid Angel) side project, but I like this way more than anything I’ve ever heard from those two bands. The dizzying pace of the songs here is just nothing short of amazing. I don’t know how it’s humanly possible to play instruments as fast and accurately as these guys do here. It’s absolutely mind-boggling. Fans of Rush, Dream Theatre, and any other prog kings who also enjoy death metal on the side will absolutely eat this one up with a fork and knife.
What’s even better, too, and what makes me appreciate this more is the lack of corny intro at the beginning of the album. Many a death or black metal album will have a spooky, keyboard laden intro to let the listener know that what they are getting into is probably too evil for them to handle. Not so with Internecine. The opening track, “The Elder Gods,” starts with super fast guitars, growls, and machine like drumming, producing near broken neck like feelings upon the unaware listener! I like the way that the corny Metallica song “Whiplash” is supposed to be really fast and intimidating; take a lesson from Internecine, James & co.
I don’t give a crap if these guys aren’t the most original band in the world. The music is truly intimidating, frightening, evil, loud, fast, brutal, and completely amazing. I am rarely completely blown away by an album, but the pure mastery of the metal genre on this record is just incredible. Anyone, I repeat, anyone into metal needs to hear this record. I’m still reeling at how completely destructive and wonderful The Book of Lambs is. I’m going to scrape the dung from my pants now.
Hammerhead Records: http://www.hammerheart.com
