{"id":83975,"date":"2018-09-07T11:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=83975"},"modified":"2018-09-07T10:29:47","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T15:29:47","slug":"metal-blade-monstrosity-siege-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/metal-blade-monstrosity-siege-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Metal Blade Review: Monstrosity & Siege of Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A double dose of metal reviews for your butts.<\/p>\n

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In the beginning, there was First Class Elite<\/strong>. Essentially, it was Asphyx<\/strong> playing punk, their influences ranging from Carnivore<\/strong> to S.O.D<\/strong>, from Discharge<\/strong> to Amebix<\/strong>, but not entirely without the death metal-reminiscent riffing characteristic for the previous works of Baayens and Bagchus. Rounded out with Martin van Drunen returning to bass and Hans “Am Very Angry” van der Benk taking over the vocal duties, it ruled. Shamefully, after the Grime! Greed! Gore!<\/a><\/em> three-way split nothing was to be heard from the band again. Until sometime in 2016, guitarist Paul Baayens and drummer Bob Bagchus decided to revive the project with bassist Theo van Eekelen, with whom the former had shared the stage in Hail of Bullets<\/strong> and the latter in Grand Supreme Blood Court<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Now that the membership has become scattered among their works, it would feel natural to apply such denominators as “supergroup” to the band, who would soon choose to rename themselves Siege of Power<\/strong>, but unlike practically every band graced with the term these years, it did not seem like some second-rate, half-assed project between bands that had met on tour and needed the feeling of creating music carefree. No, each of the members has made music together, and shared the stage together, for several years, coming together once more, with a new band. Even the new vocalist, death metal legend Chris Reifert shared something of a connection with the band, his Violation Wound<\/strong> having been one of the two bands First Class Elite shared their split with.<\/p>\n

“All recordings on their debut album Warning Blast<\/em> were done in just a few hours…” sounds less like not-a-half-assed-side-project, but I also like the idea of a punk band going in, playing rec and just crapping everything out before calling it a night, just to mix the next day. “…and most of the music and lyrics were written on the spot.” A-ha. That’s some of the least promising things I’ve read in a while. But the FCE split is extremely jammable so I am not about to give in that easy.<\/p>\n

Siege of Power is more of the same for those familiar with FCE, Bagchus’ simple pounding over hastening hardcore riffs – though several songs, like “Conquest For What?” and “Born Into Hate” swipe ideas from the Asphyx sale-basket, while others – “Bulldozing Skulls” at the front – go from doom to d-beat in matter of seconds, it never gets too close for comfort. Increasing the death metal pretense is the much louder, heavier and cleaner production that fits Warning Blast<\/em> like a glove. Especially death-y the band gets whenever they slow down, the closer “The Cold Room”, for example does not speed up at all, building it’s intensity on the album’s most restrained melodies – when they do appear here, they are some of the most lively the quartet’s put to tape anywhere – and the increasingly unglued Reifert’s descend to insanity.<\/p>\n

On paper Siege of Powert reads like a therapeutic project, but Warning Blast makes the best of a feeble foundation. Not one for the ages, but more fun than it ought to be.<\/p>\n

3\/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell<\/h2>\n

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