Monster X "Indoctrination - Complete Discography" CD
[Hater of God]
Hot damn am I glad this CD exists. 44 tracks of brutal, metallic hardcore with a grind edge. I never bought as much of this band's material as I knew I should have, so having everything on one convenient CD is awesome. Included herein is their 1993 demo, the split 7"s with Capitalist Casualties, Spazz, and Human Greed, the self-titled 7", the "Attrition" 7", the "To the Positive Youth" 7", and five compilation songs. For those unaware, the band plays fast hardcore rooted in the old school style, but with a really dirty level of distortion and fucking sick low vocal growls (sometimes swaying over towards higher sneers). There's not a whole lot of diversity at all, so over an hour of material can be a bit much for one sitting, but the completeness factor is totally in check, and there are some definite winners here. "Chained for Life" is slower and heavier, introducing some slightly more metallic influences; a lot of the tracks on "Attrition" have more of a thrashy crossover sort of thing happening (see "Unequal Treatment"); "The Machine" is darker and brings in some way metal riffs (awesome), etc. And then the "To the Positive Youth" 7" is all covers, so you get Monster X taking on classics from Straight Ahead, Bold, Youth of Today, The Abused, Unit Pride, Uniform Choice, Chain of Strength, and No for an Answer - which are musically intact but vocally over the top with the insane growls - plus they also drop a cover of Unity's "P.M.A." elsewhere. Good stuff. All of the recording sessions are fine by me. It's raw stuff, but the mixes are generally even, and you can make out what's going on, so fuck it. The "Attrition" EP is slightly thinner, but everything on here's got a lot of intense distortion, and the textures are awesome. It's really quite consistent as a whole. Well done. The packaging is really well handled. The artwork is cool and includes a few small band photos, some flyers and press clippings, all of the lyrics, a list of all the band members and other bands that they've participated in, and most of the original record covers. I really like the lyrics a lot. The topics cover political issues with a few more personal angles or scene related subjects, but the approach isn't generic at all. "And what is god's forgiveness to the piles of ashes that blow across these hot deserts? For all our naïve beliefs only die with us on cultural battlefields." Fans of the band that have all of this stuff on vinyl or whatnot might still want to snag this, but if you're into this stuff and only have an EP or two, this is a great discography that's been handled the way I wish all such collections would be. (7/10)
Running time - 69:34, Tracks: 44
[Notable tracks: The Final Frontier, Nailed to the X, Chained for Life, Will to Die, Unequal Treatment, The Machine, Leap of Faith, The Gift]
Hater of God - http://www.haterofgod.com

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