LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR – Evil Power CD
The Grind-House Records
“Let’s Kill These Motherfuckers”, a song from this release, should be the anthem of 2010. I know when the November elections roll around I’ll have that song bouncing around in my cranium when I go to polls to vote. I’ve been very angry at some politicians for the past few years, very angry, but I won’t dwell on that here. As far as LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, I didn’t get into them until 2008 when I picked up their War Metal Battle Master release. It was one of the best releases of that year as far as I was concerned and frankly that’s all that matters. Now I’m a huge fan and this release hasn’t wavered my appreciation of them one bit in fact I’ll say now that Evil Power will be on the Scumfeast Metal 666 fave list for 2010. Hyperbole on my part again, I don’t think so. One of this band’s main influences is violence. I learned that in 2008 and it’s what really appealed to me in their music. Another thing is that this trio from Chicago has a sound and style that crosses all genre boundaries. In the past they mixed everything from sludgy doom, black & death metal and full on thrash. I take back what I said before. This band doesn’t just cross genre boundaries, they smash through them.
On Evil Power, their fourth full length, the band cuts back on the sludge and picks up some more speed. There’s more hints of angry, pissed off hardcore from days of old. When I say “days of old” I’m talking about 1981 to 1988, the era when HC was real before it became crowded with hippy commies. The above mentioned anthem is a song some modern day punk rock kid only wishes one of his fave bands could’ve come up with. But they couldn’t because they’re pussies and think Punk started with RANCID. Then there’s the more thrash approach which these guys, with a new bass player, seem to have swallowed whole and crapped out. It’s barely controlled aggression which makes it tough to even type this review. Every time I concentrate on the music my fists clinch and suddenly both middle fingers fly out like switchblade knives as if I’m ready to battle the world. It’s the title cut which is almost a call to arms, a call to war.
This came out a few months back so I deliberately kept away from reading reviews or hearing songs from their site. I wanted to feel the power of this release like full force trauma. That’s how I discovered War Metal Battle Master. I saw it in the store, remembering seeing their name before but that was it. I took it home, placed into the stereo and pushed play. When that release kicked in it was like a shotgun blast point blank right in the gut. Thankfully I’ve got a tough hide unlike many of you of course. As far as Evil Power goes, this was like traveling down the highway going 90 miles per hour in a muscle car and crashing head on into a bridge embankment. Of course I’d survive that, remember I said muscle car and not some piece of crap hybrid. I doubt you could get one of those things up to 90 miles per hour before they started shaking and pissing just like a little dog. Violence! Yeah it’s a beautiful thing.
www.thegrind-houserecords.com/
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