Review: Overlord Industries “Superunderground Vehicle” CD

Here's what I believe is the third demo from this unusual Swedish act. This time around things kick off in a slightly more straightforward manner in "The Sleeping Mind", which uses tons of black metal-esque speed and snarling vocals with a few quick bursts of industrial percussion and bits and pieces of classic thrash on rare occasion. "Illness" follows with a midpaced attack that still builds on a classic black metal framework, throwing in some chunkier rhythms and weird noises more associated with some of the band's other material that I've heard. "CFF" is another blend of black metal styles with a few moderate tempos that have rocked out rhythm patterns and noisier textural elements that aren't typical of the genre. "Depopulation" is similar to the opening track in its blend of very subtle industrial percussion (only in certain instances) with a generally blasting attack of fast black metal tremolo picking and a few strange riffs that seem to pop up in all of these tracks. But then closer "Love Song" is thicker and comes off more like metallic hardcore, complete with strained vocal grunts and moshy rhythm patterns!? The twisted guitar layering and dissonance that comes in midway through the piece is fuckin' great, though! I wish they did more of that stuff! The recording is raw (no doubt on purpose) but fairly effective since the mix is basically even. The tones are suitable, with the vocals staying in the background behind slightly biting guitars and basic percussion, with just a little bass peaking through on occasion. I'm basically fine with the sound. It could be mastered a little louder, but other than that it's cool. The packaging is odd, but has some really cool touches. The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a simple xeroxed booklet, but the band logo has been spraypainted onto the inside of the clear portion of the case with a stencil, which secures the booklet to the plastic and creates a strange layering effect that I really like. So even though the artwork isn't that good, the way the logo is layered in is pretty awesome. I'm so torn on this band. They do appear to be improving with each new set of songs, but they've yet to break a 5/10 rating from me because I still just can't get into it. It's like they're taking baby steps, you know? The writing gets a little more focused with each outing, and they still retain their quirkiness, but it still doesn't really do anything for me. I don't know what to make of their work at all. I mean, this demo is basically unusual yet somehow typical black metal with one metalcore song at the end, you know? Very odd.