Aortic Regurgitation - a 2-piece Chinese thrash metal band with middle-eastern influences. There are so many things strange (and awesome) with that sentence I don't even know where to begin. The band name itself is textbook goregrind, yet they play good ol' raw and dirty thrash. Huh? Let me guess, you will check this band out because like most metalheads, you are fascinated with discovering bands from Buttfuck, Nowhere-istan. Yes, this band is from Hong Kong. And yes, that's awesome. But more importantly, these guys are legitimately good and that's what matters. On a side-note, I'm not even sure if Hong Kong is part of China or what the deal is with that. But ever since I found out Taiwan is also called Republic of China, I've stopped involving myself in the retarded politics of that region.
But back to Aortic Regurgitation! Let's get the cons out of the way first. Actually, there's only one but it's fairly important; the bedroom production. The guitars and programmed drums sound great, it's mostly the vocals that are badly recorded and somewhat undecipherable. The vocalist, Cynthia Yim is no doubt absolutely killer at what she does though. She doesn't shout like traditional heavy/thrash metal vocalists, they're more growls resembling oldschool, evil-as-fuck thrash bands like Dark Angel. This pushes Aortic Regurgitation more towards the deathrash category. I should mention that the weak production on the vocals isn't necessarily a bad thing if you like that sort of raw sound. It might actually be a plus in that case, so decide for yourself!
The music itself isn't all middle-eastern influenced, like I misleadingly pointed out earlier, but they do play some of those sweet, intense melodies throughout the EP. The guitar work is very unique and refreshing at times. There are a number of memorable, hummable riffs, and I found myself enthusiastically bobbing my head from time to time. These guys are no doubt very talented. Overall, the EP takes influence from all kinds of thrash; evil, groovy, oldschool, and whatever you can name. They have some great solos, and even an instrumental. The latter I found to be a great idea, because the vocals can get a bit too much, and I believe they should let the music shine a bit more.
I will forgive the fact that this "album" doesn't have artwork or even a title, because these tracks show the true potential of Aortic Regurgitation, and to me that potential is very high. I hope this doesn't start and end as a bedroom project, and that they find more members - especially a real drummer - and become big. Also, the EP can be downloaded for free through the band's Myspace page. Or you can order it too. I personally cannot wait for a full-length. Definitely worth checking out!
And so the Malevolent Jester hath decreed.
No comments:
Post a Comment