Cream Abdul Babar/Teen Cthulhu "split" CD
[Hyperrealist]
Five tracks in less than 13 minutes makes this quite possibly the shortest split CD I've ever heard! The massively large lineup of Cream Abdul Babar starts off - complete with trombone, keyboards, and noise textures - with two tracks. The first, "Mahogany-Walled Executive Officer", is their token brand of sludgy material, blending a rhythmic element with a noisier and more discordant angle. But the second track, "Intruder Alert", is a total waste: Nearly four minutes of annoying loops and grinding distorted noises with some childish keyboard sounds fighting through in the background. No thanks. It's a shame, because this is the best recording these guys have ever nailed down, the mix is nice and thick, with good texture and tonality, but I'm starting to wonder if this band is ever going to win me over. Teen Cthulhu's tracks immediately get on my nerves because I hate their use of keyboards and their material isn't mastered nearly as loudly as Cream Abdul Babar's. I've never been into this band, and sadly these songs do nothing to change my mind. It's raw, caustic, oddly melodic "black metal", sort of... they're pretty quirky, and I do like the insane layering of shouting and screaming... but their songs are boring and do nothing for me. The recording here sounds like a bad demo as well, so... no thanks. I'm not sure what to make of their lyrics either. "Nitreous sedative, Novocaine chills my lips, Honor bound to fight this battle, Antiseptic fields of war, Commanding from reclining towers, I cannot see, But I swear that I am not blind, Blessed are the cries, This torture is a gift, Do it, Men of honor die with honor." I will give them credit for claiming that all of their songs were written by Bryan Adams. I got a kick out of that. Aside from the unfortunate fact that the central image on the front cover is horribly pixilated, the layout is awesome, using only a metallic bronze color with some deep reds and blues. Everything is clean and well spaced out, but damn, the cover image looks terrible... I don't know what they were thinking. All it would've taken would be a higher-res scan and it would've been fine, a perfect match for the rest of the layout. Oh well. I'm not into this. The first Cream Abdul Babar song is decent, and Teen Cthulhu drops a handful of good riffs, but this is a snoozer. Sorry. (4/10)
Running time - 12:48, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Mahogany-Walled Executive Officer, Xcalibr8]
Hyperrealist - http://www.hyperrealist.com

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