First up on this odd split is Rory Heikkila's one-man metal machine Shroud of Despondency, this time taking a technical death metal approach rather than the raw black metal he's unleashed in the past. Despite the fact that the songs are unfortunately grouped under the immature heading of the "Death Metal & Mushrooms" sessions, which would suggest a shitty set of tunes, the material is actually pretty god damn impressive. Expect five tracks and 23 minutes of textbook technical death metal complete with everything from sinister midpaced dissonance and pinch harmonics to speedy tremolo picking runs, low growls and snarling screams, some sweet melodic solos, etc. I can hear bits and pieces of everyone from Death and Immolation to Gorguts and Cryptopsy in this stuff, and it's fairly cool material. The songwriting is admittedly a little jumbled, and the recording sounds like a raw demo, but it's listenable, and Heikkila's talents both in writing riffs and in competently performing complete songs all on his own are very much evident. I'm not bothered by the sound of the drum machines in most cases, it's just that the mix sometimes favors vocals over guitars (see "Spinning Diety" - that's how the title is spelled in the package, I'm not sure if it's intentional or not) and the overall aesthetics of the recording are too rugged to truly do justice to this material. Some songs are thicker and more efficient than others, but it's still in need of work across the board. I mean, it's technical death metal, you know? It needs a really clean, crisp sound to let all of the details shine through. Also annoying is that he left himself counting off at the beginning of each song in silly voices and shit, which was just a poor decision in my opinion. I still think all of this stuff needs work, but "The Power Grip" is a solid song, and there are some killer riffs throughout the set. Fuckpot follows with 11 tracks and 18 minutes of what the duo confesses is "a bad joke gone way too far", which basically consists of tons of techno beats and samples that generally deal with Satan, drugs, sex, and other topics that are looked at with a juvenile sense of humor throughout the material. Some of the samples are pretty damn funny, as is the techno-ish music, but let's face it, shall we? This stuff basically sucks. Leonard (Rory Heikkila and a sidekick) offers up four tracks of instrumental acoustic material that, despite idiotic song titles like "Billy Mumphries, the Cock-Eyed Optimist", is actually pretty god damn good for its 23-minute duration. Sure, the performances falter a little here and there, and the sound isn't as lush as I'd prefer, but the riffs are great and carry a nice atmosphere that has nothing at all in common with the lighthearted titles. Expect somber chord progressions, lots of layering, some great dual guitar melodies, and lots of really efficient interaction between the panned acoustic guitars. And hell, dare I say it, but some of this stuff is right up there with Opeth in atmospheric character (check out the latter chunk of "Once, Twice, Three Times on Fire" around three minutes in). The black-bottom CD-R comes in extremely crude packaging printed off of a home printer that's largely in black and white sans some red text and a faint color photograph. It looks like utter shit and actually harms the already suffering professionalism of this release even further. Granted the thing only sells for $6, but still... it looks horrible. I also had trouble with the CD-R choking up on me a bunch of times (which prevented me from listening in more detail, as I was unable to skip back and forth to conveniently re-listen to certain passages), so go figure. I hate to be a dick, but shit, I think Rory Heikkila's a good guy and a good musician... so it pisses me off to see him wasting so much talent and material on these terrible, crude little split CD's (as he also did on his split with Dead to Earth). I also have little to no tolerance for the humor factor, as I don't like humor in music and I see no place for lightheartedness in technical death metal or somber acoustic tracks that are otherwise significantly promising. I mean, shit, have fun with what you're doing by all means, but take this stuff a little more seriously and you could do some major fuckin' damage, man! Come on!
[Acid Victim]
Running time - 64:08, Tracks: 20
[Notable tracks: The Power Grip, Failure Death Success, and the Leonard material]
Acid Victim Records - http://www.freewebs.com/acidvictim/
