Death n Roll nuff said
Are there swamps in France? Huge tracts of waterlogged marshland complete with misty bayou's and an inbred populace? If not where on earth did Phazm come from? They have a backwater vibe going all through this album that makes you think of moonshine and guys that get married to their mothers daughter. Right from the opening track there's a harmonica all over the Death metal styling of this song, it shouldn't work. It just shouldn't. It's wrong on every level.
The thing is, and you know I'm going to say this. It does. Admittedly were at the soft end of Death metal, if there is such a thing, you know the bit where it just becomes heavy metal but not quite, and that harmonica just fits right in. It's typical that metal can incorporate practically anything and in the right hands make it work. Like bagpipes in Korn, violins in numerous folk metal bands and real singing in Hardcore. OK the last one was a joke.
I love this first song, it has 'swing your pants' written all over it and will have heads bobbing none stop live, vocally it's 'light' death style, sleazy and a grounding for the slightly quirky music. The album moves to a more standard Death style for a few songs but still keeping one foot in quirky land ready to jump over at the slightest provocation, every now and again I get reminders of Motorhead but then again I also get thoughts of 'Doctor and the Medics' doing 'Spirit in the sky' so what do I know?
Just when you think you know where you're at the tempo and feeling of the song changes completely and I can imagine some guy head banging at a gig completely caught out by the sudden change and trying to stop shaking his head without anyone noticing ha ha ha ha.
You can't complain when someone, somehow, comes up with something new and interesting, god knows there are enough bands doing the same thing as everyone else until a genre collapses under it's own weight, so my hat is off to Phazm for making an album that is creative and pushing the limits of metal a little further. Later on there are a couple of moments of drug induced weirdness that are at an oblique angle to the rest of the album but don't seem out of place, a whole song in the shape of 'Damballah' for instance which even has eastern mystical leanings and seriously dodgy sounds on.
Later there's a nice fast Death track called 'The bright side of Death' (Monty Python?) followed immediately by a short acoustic guitar and harmonica bonkers bit, then into 'Mr Toodling' a standout track for having all the wrong things thrown together and coming out great, it's got a drum beat like a speeded up waltz, a steel sliding guitar sound and lyrics about erm... dead people having sex I think.
This is a great package too as it's a double sided disc, one side has the CD album, and if you flip it over there's a DVD of a gig on the other side, what a great idea, how's that for value for money. Look just buy the thing.