Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus/Despised Icon "Split" CD
[Relapse]
Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus kicks off this brief split with three tracks of their vastly improved grindcore. It's still chaotic and blazingly fast, and I'm not totally into that whole style, but gone are the silly song titles/lyrics and inadequately raw recordings, plus the riffs are stronger and slightly more fluid now. Therefore, even though there are a shitload of breakneck changes all over the place, the songs tend to flow fairly well, and there are some definite powerful areas where they make use of slightly slower tempos and thicker rhythms. The vocals tradeoff between hoarse growls and shrieking screams, but they're way back in the mix so they don't distract from the music at all. Expect tons of tremolo picking, a little discordance, a little metalcore sounding chaos, maniacal vocal arrangements, and short songs that hover near two minutes each. The recording is super dense and gets a little muddy, but for the most part I like it. Were the guitars a little brighter I think that might even things out a bit, but who knows? The bass tends to get lost, and there are some areas where details drown amidst the density, but portions of "Xenophobic Hate Machine" have some spacious riffing that all sounds great. There's something nice about that overpowering massiveness, too. The lyrics are brief and deal with socio-political commentary, much of which I actually enjoy. "Beating slowly, the morbid drums of war. Choking back on dirt in the defiant desert sun, they digest the fields of their enemies. The politicians offer no way home..." Not bad. Despised Icon (Canada) follows with three tracks of their own, which are similar, but a touch longer and more centralized around a core of technical death metal amidst the chaotic grind and metalcore flirtations. I like the fact that they use more variety and more tempo changes, as the midpaced breaks give things more breathing room and tend to be pretty awesome (the end of "Oval Shaped Incisions" is totally great), but their material is a little more disjointed as a whole. I don't care for the Dillinger-esque chaotic chords or abrasive moments, but other than that most of the riffing is solid, it's just the actual arrangements that feel a little lacking to me. Sound-wise it's a little flat. Tolerable, but flat. The hoarse vocal screams sound good and the guitars are nice and clear, but the bass gets lost and some of the percussion has that wet cardboard box sound happening. A lot of times the kick drums have a really flitty sort of thing going on during the faster patterns, which cuts through the mix and sounds mildly ridiculous, but they're on the right track elsewhere. Lyrically things are pretty abstract, with hints at meaning, but nothing specific, which works well in this case. "Awake to salvage what is left before it dies away. An oath destined to be forgotten. Strong words are nothing more than a heartfelt cliché. The loss of innocence. The end of innocence approaches." Visually everything looks cool to me, with vibrant colors and lots of splotchy layers of texture against the imagery, and a consistent presentation across the board for both bands. This isn't a bad split, I'm just not blown away. Bodies in the Gears of the Apparatus has progressed significantly from their past work and takes it home on this split in my opinion (though they still have room to grow), while Despised Icon isn't so bad, I just feel like they need to hone their attack a bit more to catch my ear. (6/10)
Running time - 18:26, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Xenophobic Hate Machine, One Last Martini (But You'll Never Notice)]
Relapse Records - http://www.relapse.com

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