siLLy puPPy
The San Francisco Bay Area has been one of the hot spots for extreme metal ever since Metallica introduced the world to thrash metal all the way back in the 1980s and although much of the world followed suit, this region where i reside has hardly rested on its laurels producing numerous metal bands of all strains. Well some of those bands like Oakland’s Sleepytime Gorilla Museum chose to get wild and experimental and then others like Pittsburg’s HEMOTOXIN chose to revisit the 90s with its Death inspired technical death / thrash metal mix.
This band was formed in 2010 as a one-man act of Michael Chavez but soon was joined by Joshua Sumpter (bass) and drummer Joey Banducci only to be replaced by drummer Brandon Wilcox who has been with the band ever since. An active power trio to this day, HEMOTOXIN has so far released three albums and an EP and it all began with this debut BETWEEN FOREVER… AND THE END which hit the scene in 2013. This album features nine tracks at a traditional album’s running time of just under 37 minutes.
Considered a Death clone by many, HEMOTOXIN does worship its guru Chuck Schuldiner not only by crafting a rampaging mix of thrash and death metal with slightly progressive twists and turns but actually covers the Death track “Suicide Machine” from the band’s classic “Human” album. This band really goes all the way including a vocal screaming growl that would pass for Schuldiner himself in a slightly altered dimension. Likewise the pummeling guitar riffage and bass / drum attacks are right out of the Death playbook. This is one of those cases where the musicianship is off the charts perfect but the creativity is sorely lacking. Of course everyone has their tolerance level for clone bands but i’m ok with it to a certain point.
The saving grace is that BETWEEN FOREVER doesn’t quite sound like a complete Death ripoff but rather sounds like a Death meets Vektor hybrid as the band has learned how to implement those wild extensive riffing frenzies that bounce back and forth and all over the place and longer extended cadences. Likewise the vocals fall somewhere between Chuck Schuldiner and Vektor’s David DiSanto. The thrash elements taking the death metal sound back to the late 1980s also oft makes this album sound more like a bonafide thrash album than a fully developed death metal one. Thematically in line with Death, the subject matter includes gore, horror and science fiction especially courtesy of H.P. Lovecraft.
Like many such bands that wear their influences too overtly on their sleeves, HEMOTOXIN is a mixed bag but due to the high quality musicianship on board with each track carving out an excellent slice of techy deathened thrash metal, i can’t help but be thoroughly impressed but likewise due to the cloniness, also are these tracks a tad forgettable as they only conjure up visions of past masters rather than establish HEMOTOXIN as a top dog in the modern tech death world. Highly recommended for those with a large expansive appetite for such technically proficient extreme metal but for those who get queasy at the sound of Schuldiner worship then perhaps this is one you should pass on.