Entombed – Left Hand Path

by Max Mad.

From the God denying and defying opener to the downright blasphemous album closer, Entombed pull no punches with their vicious debut album.

Let’s step back a moment, to consider this album as if hearing it for the first time. The spiralling dual guitar attack and weighty drumming that persist thoughout the album will leave the listener with little time to consider the content of the lyrics, if individual words can even be picked out from amongst the tempestuous onslaught. The first and title track – possibly the single best on a very consistent album – sets the tone for what is to come. A tortured wailing fades away only to be replaced by frantic and complex drumming (no repetitive Cannibal Corpse-ness here) and some very catchy guitar riffs. It’s a long song; lesser DM bands would have trouble keeping their songs interesting for six and a half minutes, but Entombed pull it off, cleverly deploying an eerie instrumental passage in the middle to help keep things from becoming stale.

Variety is seldom the watchword with death metal. Some bands seem content to trot out the same old blastbeast and weary guitar licks from one album to the next – hell, the fans lapped it up last time; let’s not tinker with the formula. Entombed could have gotten away with producing a robust-but-formulaic first album, (“give them time to refine their sound”) but they haven’t done that. Left Hand Path feels a lot more melodic than a lot of other death metal albums, and feels fresh today, nearly twenty years after it was released. As I said earlier, it’s a very consistent album and although the album is most satisfying when listened to in its entirety, each individual track delivers the goods.

Special mention must also go to the exceptional production. Individual instruments can be easily picked out of the mix, and it sounds clean without sacrificing aggression.

If you liked this you might like: Carcass – Heartwork, Poison Idea – Feel the Darkness

Verdict: TENTOMBED out of 10

Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030

by Rhys Robertson.

Most people probably know Del Tha Funkee Homosapien/Del The Funky Homosapien/Del The Fucking Homosexual for rapping about things that happen to all of us: waiting for the bus, debating whether dark or light-skinned girls are better, and pissing on steps. That’s why it’s impressive that the sci-fi rap on this album is so amazingly good. He raps with the same eloquence and imagination about underground rebellions against corrupt totalitarian regimes as he does about stinky people who need a wash. He’s even got the magical ability to make words rhyme when they don’t even come close: “I wanna devise a virus/to bring dire straits to your environment”. It’s so cool and laid back and it all seems so effortless. Deltron made Del one of my favourite rappers, although this wouldn’t have been the case unless he already had the combination of a rich voice and extensive vocabulary.

Actually, they probably know him for being featured on Gorillaz songs (however, saying this earlier would have made my point pretty weak, considering Gorillaz’ distinctly weird nature), but that’s because they’re soooo white! Don’t they know that Damon Albarn was influenced to do Gorillaz because of Deltron 3030? I know this because of Wikipedia. It’s a pretty cool site, you should try it.  Anyway, maybe I should point out that Deltron 3030 isn’t just Del’s work, but also that of Dan the Automator and Kid Koala, who have done a few things I have heard and lots of things I haven’t. But that stuff is probably really good too! I know Automator’s project/side-project/thing, Handsome Boy Model(l)ing School, is generally nice to listen to, and Kid Koala’s remix of Herbert Chappell’s seminal The Gonk takes that tune to places it has never been before. The other day at 4am I woke up my housemate by singing it at the top of my voice. She enjoyed it very much.

That last paragraph kind of had no point, so I’ll make it here instead. All three members of this hip-hop supagroop prove themselves on this album to be really good at what they do, and the result is a smart and witty album about a subject area that is rarely covered by artists of any genre, let alone hip-hop. It immediately creates a mental image of a Judge Dredd-style post-apocalyptic society where the people are kept in check by bureaucracy (“I figured since I’m here I’ll renew my galactic passport/so I’m not persecuted by no galactic assholes”) and brutal violence (“No president we have a ruler/’You are to be inside by 9 o’clock or we will shoot ya’”). This is assisted by Del’s regular references to other dystopian media like Ghost in the Shell, Neuromancer and the Fallout games, along with all the old sci-fi film samples, and it’s clear that all of these things are very important to him. If they made a post-apocalypse flavour of ice cream it would be the only one I would eat, so hearing Del rap about such things gives me that awesome feeling of experiencing something that seems it was tailor-made for me.

This is why I’m both worried and excited about the eventually-forthcoming second album, Deltron Event II. Obviously, more Deltron 3030 would be fantastic, but Event II has got so much to live up to. It’s reassuring that they’re taking so long to make it, since they must know how amazing it’s going to have to be to match 3030.

Verdict: POST-HIPHOPALYPSE out of 10. Because 3030 out of 10 is waaay too obvious.

Mighty Crown – Spice of Love

by Harold Z Dalton.

I once got arrested outside a Mighty Diamonds after-show party for smoking weed. This was problematic because 1) I wasn’t actually smoking weed; and 2) it was a reggae band’s after-show and they should totally give some leeway there. Perhaps it’s just because the last time I was in Amsterdam I spent the whole time in reggae clubs and now my natural physical reaction on hearing the slightest hint of a riddim is for my eyes to glaze over and a stupid dumb grin to slide across my face. Oh, reggae. You do get me into some scrapes.

Which is why Spice of Love appealed to me. Tribute to Volcano has rarely been out of my playlist for more than a couple of weeks since 2006, so Mighty Crown were firmly on my list of groups who I could trust to not shit all over my record collection.

I came to this album expecting the “love” of the title to be the same love of Barrington Levy (“What kind of world are we living in? Seven fat girls to one slim bredren”) or Derrick Harriott (“I am wiser than Solomon, so girl don’t play no tricks”). Secretly I hoped it would be more the dancehall kind of love (to paraphrase, “She got mah lovin all night AND FUCK ALL U HOMOFAGS”), because I’m one of those bellends who enjoys things ironically as a substitute for actually doing anything even remotely creative. But it wasn’t either of those kinds of love. It was unrequited love. It was “you are so special to me” love. The kind of love that doesn’t exist, the kind of songs that communicate with hollow people whose experience of the real world extends only as far as pretty colours on a TV screen and the fact they continue to talk to childhood school friends over MSN Messenger even though they’re 26. I have accidentally bought the iriest pop-trash in the world.

Mighty Crown won my heart by giving me short, wonderfully creative remixes of amazing, little-known songs. Why are they suddenly doing these over-long, over-produced remixes of warbling shite? Who in God’s name told them this was anything other than the worst fucking idea imaginable?

No, perhaps that’s harsh. I mean, I’ve not heard of any of the fucking songs on this album and I’m about as likely to listen to anything that “believes love is the answer” as I am to cave a hammer into my own metatarsus, but… well it’s pretty catchy and the sound is still there, buried away. If only it wasn’t surrounded by so much naive, embarrassing nonsense, this could’ve been a reasonable follow-up that I could get in trouble with the police to, as opposed to merely a hugely expensive import CD that I have to hide in a drawer whenever anybody comes round for fear of my reputation being tarnished.

Verdict: S DUB 7 out of 10.