Alchemist
Organasm
Relapse
A truly amazing album from a band that actually lives up to the label hype: “…one of the most profoundly unique bands on the planet…” Yep, that’s sure true. I would add that they’re one of the strongest “unique” metal bands I’ve heard. Organasm is at once epic, symphonic, electronic heavy metal and stoner metal. It’s electronic speed metal and it’s prog rock. Everything about this record works, too – it’s a successful hybrid metal from all directions. I was first blown away from the fascinating heavy guitars and electronics of “Austral Spectrum,” but the massive, three-part metal opera the “Evolution Trilogy” scrambled my mind. It’s philosophy, it’s science, it’s history. The mega-heavy, stoner-esque lyrics tell, in “Bio Approach” of the beginning of the planet, of birth through fire and ice and the Darwinian engine driving life forward. The second part, “Rampant Macro Life,” apparently sees humans on the earth, in our present state, as a malevolent outgrowth, though natural, that will only destroy itself. The final section, “Warring Tribes,” speaks of humanity’s end, at its own hand. It’s an awesome heavy metal epic. But that’s not all, the album continues for six more songs of astronomy, psychology, biology, and other science, rolled into a new metal philosophy. Not only that, but it cranks out as serious True Metal!
This is a new kind of heavy metal, not simply a good reworking of past, successful genres, but a music necessitating a new rack at the music store.
Relapse Records: http://www.relapse.com • Alchemist: http://www.alchemist.com.au, <http.goulburn.net.au/~stimpy/al>, http://www.adrenalin.dynamite.com.au.alchemist
