Vulgar Pigeons
Summary Execution |
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©2001 Necropolis/Deathvomit 1. Hymnal Of The Misanthrope 2. Empty The Streets 3. Skullcap 4. Swelling 5. Carve 6. Stumbling Into The Crossfire 7. MSG 8. Lampshade Desire 9. Follow The Hum 10. Flip Off Your Boss 11. Process Of Elimination 12. Sunderland Sickness 13. Police = Shit 14. Intermission 15. Pharmaceutical Knockout 16. River Rat 17. Aggro-culture 18. Colonizing The Nearest Habitual Planet 19. Corporate Morgue 20. 100 Feet Off The Roadway 21. Fuck The Police (Bump) 22. In The Hands Of A Benevolent Chimpanzee Scientist 23. Permanent Speechlessness 24. (T.F.S.) Time For Sleep 25. Measure Of Loss 26. Foreshadowing Of Ignorance |
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Ugh, this is frustrating… By all rights, this should have been one of the best extreme music releases of 2001. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the music at all. Vulgar Pigeons' mix of grind, technical death, and hardcore is very creative and their songwriting skills are definitely way above average. So where does the problem lie, you ask? Well, unfortunately, the production/recording/mix on this album is completely inappropriate and sucks away some of the power from what could have been an absolute mindblower of an album. Now, if an album has poor recording, I usually try to look past it, and I have absolutely no problem with "raw" production, if it's appropriate for the album. But this production isn't appropriate. It's raw and muddy when it should be clear and precise. The vocals alternate between shouts, screams, rasps and growls, and for some reason the growls are mixed significantly lower than the other vocals. And, most annoyingly (and I can't really think of any explanation for this), the low end occasionally distorts so much that it makes the music hard to enjoy. Thankfully this is not a very common occurrence, but I would prefer that it didn't happen at all. However, these little production annoyances don't completely detract from the great music presented here. The riffs are extremely complex, yet memorable as hell and even "catchy", if that term can be used when describing music of this sort, and there are plenty of slower, extremely heavy breakdowns. Of course there are tons of blast beats (this is a grind album after all) and the drummer can blast with the best of them. He also throws in quite a few neat little fills here and there. Because the music on this disc is so excellent, it still gets a recommendation from me for fans of grindcore, death metal, and metallic hardcore alike, despite the aforementioned sound flaws. If this had better production, I guarantee it would obliterate everything. (Oh, and by the way... I also find it hilarious that they thank quite a few people who post on the Relapse UBB in the liner notes, and even make a reference to it in one of the song titles! Frequent posters/readers of the board know which song I'm talking about...) Review by Mark Pennington Review date: 01/2002 |
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