Beaten To Death - Xes And Strokes
This Oslo based Norwegian death metal/grindcore/hardcore band got their name after hearing one of their friends had been literally ‘beaten to death’. This four piece draws its influences from the other bands they have played with, including Tsjuder and She Said Destroy. This illustrious musical background sets the band up for this their debut album.
The album crashes its way into life and launches into a screamo vocal that, with the instrumental, seems at first to just be a mess. There isn’t any real semblance or link between them, it just seems like someone has played a load of instruments and then just chucked a vocal track on top of it.
Not to my great surprise, the album does gain some coherence after the chaotic first track; however it still seems to be a mishmash of vocal and instrumental, especially when taking into account the hook on some of the songs. The two different vocal styles work well against each other, but again they seem disjointed and nothing really seems coherent on this album, making it one I don’t want to listen to. The only real high point is that all of the songs are short, so thankfully the aural assault is over pretty quickly.
The album crashes its way into life and launches into a screamo vocal that, with the instrumental, seems at first to just be a mess. There isn’t any real semblance or link between them, it just seems like someone has played a load of instruments and then just chucked a vocal track on top of it.
Not to my great surprise, the album does gain some coherence after the chaotic first track; however it still seems to be a mishmash of vocal and instrumental, especially when taking into account the hook on some of the songs. The two different vocal styles work well against each other, but again they seem disjointed and nothing really seems coherent on this album, making it one I don’t want to listen to. The only real high point is that all of the songs are short, so thankfully the aural assault is over pretty quickly.
- Pointless Testament
- Winston Churchill
- On Running
- A Soulless Alarm
- 3-2-1, It’s On
- Cat Olympics
- A Word To The Wise
- Groundhog Day
- Xes And Strokes
