Aleister C. "Struggle for Life" CD
[self-released]
From São Paulo, Brazil comes a horribly named band (named after Aleister Crowley, of course, quoting "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law..." inside the booklet) that plays some groovy metal that sounds to me like it was influenced by that 90's style of pseudo thrash like Machine Head and "Chaos A.D." era Sepultura, but it's even simpler and more stripped down, with a lot of emphasis on rhythmic power chords and some metalcore influences (think Fury of Five). It's not that bad, but the songs are too long. When there aren't that many drastic changes in a song that runs more than four or five minutes the chugging chord progressions and shouting vocals can get tiresome after awhile. I'm also not big on the groove factor, especially when they start dropping way too many pinch harmonics. I can't believe these guys have been around since fucking '88. I wonder what they used to sound like!? The title track is pretty good, probably the best song herein, which is surprising as it runs nearly six minutes and stays pretty repetitive. It's just a straightforward and sort of catchy song (not in a poppy way) with one extended break that uses some clean guitars and spoken vocals under heavy effects. "Alone" throws in a little bit more speed than is often present elsewhere, though not for extended periods of time. The production's not bad for a self-released EP. The drums are slightly rigid and in my opinion too loud, but the guitar tone is really fucking good and the vocals sound decent. I can't really make out an ounce of bass, so I'd manipulate the mix first and foremost, but there aren't too many significant issues. The layout sort of sucks. It's all black and white, which is fine, and the band icon is sort of interesting, but most of the images are oddly blurry, there's no real sense of logical placement for anything, the text is plain, the band "logo" text is really bad... it's just not thought out very well. Lyrically the songs deal with depression and pain and that sort of thing, nothing out of the ordinary. "Death is the way out, That drops its depressive tears, With the fear and the contempt, Of the world that forgot you." I don't know, I could sort of see myself liking this if they were to cut the running times in half, chuck the harmonics and some of the more over the top grooves, and clean up the mix. Not bad, but they definitely need work. I bet they're pretty forceful live, but the biggest problem is just that the songs are way too damn long... I wish they had a better band name, too. That's one of the worst band names I've ever come across. Oh well. (4/10)
Running time - 24:12, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Struggle for Life, Alone]
Aleister C. - http://www.aleisterc.com.br

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