Man Must Die "...Start Killing" CD
[Retribute]
This Scottish act plays a mix of death metal and thrash with a few strands of melodic Swedish riffing seeping in now and then. It's alright, but I'm not that into the recording, which only adds to the number of generally mild problems that kind of stack up against this disc. To address that particular issue, the drums are really thin and unnatural, with a lot of high-end tautness and no real depth. I also have a really hard time hearing the bass, and the guitar tone just isn't that crunchy or dense either. It's clear, and that precision can make for some slick thrash riffs and classic death metal breakdowns (see "Indulge in Genocide"), but it leaves a lot of room for the vocals to sort of distract. The vocals don't hold one general style, they're all over the map from low growls to throaty sneers, screams, thrashy shouts, etc. The actual songwriting is mixed as well, often with fast paced changes, but they're pretty good at keeping it sensible and coherent. One minute they might be cranking out a technical blast, followed by a melodic tremolo picking run or a slower and chunkier chord progression, but it rarely jumbles together or gets chaotic. I don't think the band is all that great at using their intense speeds in a manner that's effective, so not that many of the songs really stand out, and I definitely get bored after about 15 - 20 minutes. The slightly dissonant midpaced rhythms in "Kingdom Shall Fall" are fucking insane though, and similar rhythms with some discordant notes in "Faint Figure in Black" close the record on a strong note - proving to me that these dudes need to work more with mixing up the tempos and shedding a little unnecessary speed. The layout's not bad. I like the inner spread better than the cover simply because the band's "M" emblem has a cheesy sort of tribal look or something (think Soulfly), but it's cool for the most part. Lyrically the songs deal largely with violence and destruction, and most of the content is honestly a little immature, but I can sort of appreciate some of their anger. "Obliteration mother earth, My obscene sweet dream, Of beautiful horror, A dead race, The only solution, To my endless licentious desire..." The bottom line for me here is that I get sick of hearing the clicky drums jump to the front and the songwriting just isn't consistently strong enough for me to truly get into it. The last two tracks would make a very promising 7", but the big picture here is less interesting. (5/10)
Running time - 38:16, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Kingdom Shall Fall, Faint Figure in Black]
Retribute Records - http://www.retributerecords.com

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