With this LP jacket displaying a DYSTOPIA-styled collage of various Japanese imagry--motorcycle cops, skyscrapers, the "Kentucky" Colonel Sanders, samurai, and GISM-styled medical elements--this Spanish band wears its influences on its sleeve. More than a direct Japonese hardcore mimicry, however, these eleven tracks regurgitate more of the BASTARD-via-TRAGEDY influence with a similar guitar-driven, melodic, metallic hardcore. A really solid, inventive dose of this style, with awesome guitar parts, melody, and song structures, but ultimately this record is just completely killed, like the old French band ONCLE SLAM (probably the most obscure reference in a magazine of obscure references, yet spot on the money), by gurgle-y, super-distorted, almost cartoon- ish vocals. Tokurow (BASTARD, JUDGEMENT) could pull these kinds of vocals off because the entire surrounding was as extreme as his distorted vocalization. Billy's vocals in TRAGEDY tread this same balance, but also measure it out with a second vocalist. Here, clear back-up vocals shine with resounding clarity when they pop up, as the contrast between them and the cleanly recorded, practiced melodic metallic bashing is not as substantial and jarring. Might-lose-something-in-the-translation lyrics are about gladiators, dying relationships, cultural imperialism, technology, perfume, and sex.
