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By RYAN MAVITY
So I’m watching the excellent documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey and I get to the part where Alice Cooper talks about Norwegian black metal as being “like Spinal Tap” because everyone was trying to out-evil everyone else. That interview came to mind as I listened to Icons Of Evil, the new album from Vital Remains.
For those that don’t know, Vital Remains is the side project of Deicide frontman Glen Benton, and if you are curious why the thoughts of Alice Cooper came to mind while reviewing this record, I point to the photograph of Benton on the album sleeve. He looks like nothing less than The Gimp from Pulp Fiction in an executioner’s mask. Combine that with song titles like “Where Is Your God Now,” “Born to Rape the World” and “Shrapnel Embedded Flesh,” and it’s easy to see where Alice is coming from, even if Benton and his cohorts aren’t from Norway.
The band’s intent is clear from the beginning: to be as shocking, brutal, violent, loud and fast as humanly possible. There’s nothing wrong with that; in fact, Benton has been successful at that with Deicide. The band itself is solid. Benton growls like Vigo the Carpathian on ‘roid rage and bandmate Dave Suzuki pulls double duty with some shredding guitar work and some of the fastest drumming outside The Berzerker. Vital Remains does not slow down for contemplation and have no use for sissies who can’t handle the nonstop brutality.
But my goodness did this album need an editor. The songs all run around six to 10 minutes long, and in this case, more is not better. Vital Remains says this album is their Reign in Blood, but they don’t seem to understand that Reign in Blood was so good because the songs were short, primal bursts of manic intensity. The songs were evil sounding, not just because of the subject matter but because lyrics and music reached a kind of crazed, frenetic energy that were so primal the intensity of the band was scary.
Which brings me back to Alice Cooper’s quote. As much as Vital Remains rocks out—and they do that in spades on this album—I found it hard to totally take the band seriously. When a band calls itself “barbaric war metal” and calls its new album “a vicious new slab of blasphemy that promises to strike fear in the hearts of the masses” and its singer is dressed as The Gimp, Spinal Tap starts to come to mind. I have absolutely no quibbles with Vital Remains musically; the band is fierce and tight, even if the songs run way too long. But good lord fellas, just go out a play the songs and leave the hyperbole and executioner’s masks in the closet.
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