Published: Absolute Underground #59 August/September 2014
CHANNEL ZERO is a metal/hard rock band from Belgium. They were huge in the 1990's and were apparently Belgium's answer to Metallica. They quit at the height of their career and didn't do much it seems until 2010 when they did a bunch of reunion shows and then their drummer died in the middle of the recording. So they got Ray Mayorga from Solufly and did that album and another one called "Kill all Kings" which is out now on Metal Blade.
It starts off well enough, a lot of "thrash" has an 80's thing going on but not here. It sounds totally 90's right off the start. The first couple of track are decent musically but it feels pretty dated in the less than entertaining way. I just feel like I'm listening to this in 1997, track #4 "Digital Warfare" is even about how dangerous the internet is...I think. It continues on like this, the music is alright but doesn't push any limits. The riffs on each song are good but mybe it's the lyics that are bugging me? The title track is #7 and it's all about how america is the illuminati and conduct terrorist acts around the world. Now that may be true but the arrangement in the song just makes me feel like they're going to reference netscape in the next verse. #11"Duisternis" is a pretty good song right in the end. It doesn't do anything special but it is a fast tempo full out song that sounds better than the rest of the album.
I don't like shitting on bands at all, especially since these guys can play better than me and have done more. The problem is that they don't sound like they did anything to change or improve since they disbanded in 1997. I'm not sure how many people can remember but I don't think that was a good year for music. I just think that they would have done something to freshen up the band so that they don't sound like a cover band at a bar that was cool 15 years ago. They can play well but I don't like how they play.
Michael F Carnage
http://www.channel-zero.be/
No comments:
Post a Comment