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Oh, how the legions of underground metal fans were revolted by this turncoat of an album release. Well, maybe not legions, but certainly those with ears tilted towards Czech deathgrind. Anyhoo, what we got here is a venerated bastion of brutality wholesale trashing its reputation by incorporating heaps of filth-flarn-filthing nu-metal. Not merely dabbling, mind you; this thing’s positively dirty with the grimy fingerprints of palm-muted riffs and bouncy tin can rhythms. Why any band so entrenched in blast gratia blast would trade off for such a trite, simplistic, mainstream rhythmic variation is beyond me, though I’ve long heard rumors of many respected death and grind artists off in the shadows loving their Korn and Slipknot albums, avoiding the scene’s scrutiny as best they can. In this respect, Alienation Mental’s brazen, candid stupidity is a refreshing alternative – snicker, chortle – to the cowardice of those others. Furthermore, these guys aren’t entirely new to the nu, having employed turntable scratching and effects on prior efforts to little or no hue and cry from the constituency. And, what’s more, it’s well nigh impossible to label this as a “sellout,” per se, considering that I can’t really envision any wallet-chain Hot Topic denizens picking it up and saying, “fuck yeahhhh.” It’s still a deathgrind album – a nimble and varied one at that – that I can revisit without guilt. But yeah, when you pull a one-two suckerpunch of a classic blaster like “A Yellow Symbol” segueing into the literal ripoffs of Korn vocal and riff on “Erase Head,” you know there’s at least some degree of cynical baiting and switching going on.
| Tracklist |
| 1. A Yellow Symbol |
| 2. Erase Head |
| 3. No Way Out |
| 4. Mass Rapes Hammer |
| 5. Neurotic |
| 6. Wreck |
| 7. Psychopathicolorspectrum |
| 8. Excellent |
: 36:22
| Buy other Alienation Mental albums |
