Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus "Simian Hybrid Prototype" CD
[The Spew]
11 tracks of chaotic grindcore in 19 minutes. I saw this band live a few years ago and I'll never forget how badly I hated them. To this day they still rank as one of the absolute worst live bands I've ever seen in my life, and I'll never forget how badly I wanted to maim them all that night. I reviewed their demo some time ago and it was definitely better than their live show, and now I'm checking out their brief debut "full-length" (if you can call it that) and it's better than the demo was. Stylistically they're still not totally my thing, but... they're getting better, if nothing else. I think the first few songs are straight off of the demo, including "Of Things to Come", which is nothing but a two-and-a-half minute sample that totally kills the momentum right after the first song and is just as lame a decision here as it was on the demo, but whatever. Either way, all four songs from the demo appear here with six new tracks and a quick cover of S.O.D.'s "Fuck the Middle East". The recording is inconsistent and rough around the edges and could stand to be a little cleaner since the playing seems to be pretty tight, but I'm okay with it for the most part. The drums sound pretty decent, the scathing vocal screams are okay, etc. I think the bass needs more volume and density, and the guitars could be slightly more controlled and dominant, but there's a lot of speed happening so it's probably going to get a little cluttered regardless. I definitely think they ought to mess with more tempo changes, as the more emphatic slow breaks are always more powerful than the ragingly fast stuff, but now and then they'll jazz it up with a slightly calmer passage ("Fuck Her Like You Paid For It") or a weird rocked out chord progression ("Seventeen Reasons to Die Wearing Black"). They waste too much time with samples, though. Out of a mere 19 minutes there are probably a good four minutes of goofy samples between three or four songs, and that's just stupid if you ask me. The layout and the lyrics suck, though. The layout's got an ugly color scheme and is too jumbled, and the photographs stink. There's no real need for photos of nude girls or girls in their underwear, but they're randomly collaged in all over the place and it looks goofy. The lyrics also constantly reference "whores" and refer to girls as "baby" and depict violence against said persons, and it's all pretty senseless and contrived. No thanks. I'm still not a fan, but they're getting a little better with time. Diehard grind fans or those who are big on the ultra zany metalcore stuff might be a little more interested in this than I, but I definitely think the band still has a long way to go before winning me over. (5/10)
Running time - 19:07, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Fuck Her Like You Paid For It, White Trash Whore]
The Spew Records - http://www.thespew.org

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