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DEATH METAL |
| STORY TIME | FANBOY | HORROR MOVIES | CONVENTION NEWS | HORRIBLE NEWS |
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Zombie face paint and songs about Horror Movies. Do we really need another KISS / MISFITS, etc. band? SHUT THE HELL UP! You haven't heard FIENDS CARNIVAL OF SOULS yet. The disc starts out with some chunky chords that builds into a blasting hard riff-ing free for all. This is "Die Sister Die" and outside of a concert hall you don't get a chance to hear music this raw and pure. The promise of the CD and digital audio was that all recordings would sound as if you were "Really there". The reality however, is that sound mixers through the years have dumbed down the sound. They want to make it warmer, slightly diffused, and sound more like the timbre of an analogue recording. This comes from luddite dimwits who hold on to the boneheaded fantasy that a vinyl record, with all of its sound impurities and surface noise, is a somehow purer form. As if listening to a bastardized version of sound was better than hearing the sound in its actual state. Voices and instruments shouldn't sound like they are, but should sound like a 3rd or 4th generation copy. Stupid I know, but these thick-skulled morons have committed their drool to print enough times that the recording industry has taken notice. Refreshing then that Skip Slaughter and Phoenix Sound Recording in Macon, Georgia dropped the pretension and gave us a band that really SOUNDS like a live band! Get between your headphones or speakers kiddoes, because FIENDS CARNIVAL OF SOULS rocks you in every sense of the word with a heavy Metal slam of music that is rare to find even among your most favorite Metal bands. And You Are There! This music is raw and hard and heavy. Its heart pounding sledgehammer fun! It does it all without ever sounding amatuer-ish. A big part of the reason behind this is band creator / leader Jason Moss. He has kept the band alive through 8 years, of many mutations, of the various band members who have walked through FIENDS CARNIVAL OF SOULS. Writing all the songs and lyrics*, Jason Moss has come through with an excellent sounding album. The band's line-up for CHILDREN OF THE DEAD has Jason Moss on Vocals, Katherine Drago on Guitar along with Eric Schwab. Adrian Moss on that damn chunky Bass and Karl Everidge tearing ass on the Drums. The only gripe I had about CHILDREN OF THE DEAD was the bullshit bonus track. I've got nothing against getting more for my money, especially when the music sounds this good. But to have to sit through minute after minute of dead air (or sit there with my finger on the button skipping through it), just to hear the last song, which is tagged to the one before so that the machine reads it all as one track, is crap. It was a cutesy CD trick once upon a time with bands like KMFDM and TOOL, but the joke is old and tiresome. That keeps it from scoring a perfect 5 Perplex Skulls, but CHILDREN OF THE DEAD is just so damn good otherwise that it still gets a high 4 Perplex Skulls and has been on heavy rotation in my stereo for the past month. Trust me, yer gonna to want this album!
This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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