Liste der Bands Thrash Death Crustacean Greed, Tyranny & Sodomy

After an 8 year break since their 2003 full length album, Crustacean comes crashing back with their brand new album, Greed, Tyranny & Sodomy. Being a sucker for nice album artworks, seeing the one on this album certainly put me off a little bit, with the seemingly amateurish artwork. However, once that has been overcome, what is contained in the album will definitely surprise listeners.

Right from the beginning, the heavy thrash metal influences in Crustacean's brand of music are obvious. The spoken introduction sets the mood for the album, before breaking into their frantic style of death/thrash metal. With frantic and chaotic riffs that instantly brings to mind and easily rival thrash metal legends such as Slayer, the band are ready to destroy anyone in their path. Add in the vocals of vocalist/bassist Tom, spitting the lyrics with hate into the microphone, like a cross between teutonic thrash metal legends Kreator's Mille Petrozza and Slayer's Tom Araya, and you get the perfect blend of death/thrash the way it should be done - fast, aggressive, hateful yet fun enough to start a mini moshpit right in front of your speakers. The moments where Tom chooses to use spoken-styled vocals also show the punk influences that have been incorporated into the music as well, making this a fitting record to attract fans of different styles of music. The style that Tom has chosen also makes chanting/shouting along to the songs easy as well, along with the simple (though slightly cliche) lyrics on songs like The Fallacy You Call Faith.

The songwriting department also does not let up, with songs like Spawn from Lies having slow parts that seem to pay homage to songs from Slayer's Reign in Blood era. These slow parts are fittingly made use of by the band to build up the climax and tension in the music, such as the slow lead section on Sadist International, causing much unease in the listener awaiting for the next wave of aural assault. Guitar solo duties are shared between axe-wielding duo Michel and JBR, often duelling and challenging each other to see who is able to come up with the most chaotic, face-ripping solo. The two distinctive styles of guitar playing of Michel and JBR makes for an interesting listen, on songs such as Plausible Deniability. The chaotic style also does not mean that they have no sense of melody, as evident on songs like closing track Greed, Tyranny & Sodomy.

The d-beat styled drumming that Joris has littered throughout the album further brings to mind crossover/thrash bands, enforcing the thrashy sound in the music. The energy in the music provided by Joris also cannot be denied, as can be heard on songs like The Fallacy You Call Faith, where he provides the quick footwork in contrast to the slow pace of the rest of the instruments in good effect. The band has also arranged the songs in such a way that they flow seamlessly, making Greed, Tyranny & Sodomy a good listen from start to end. Closing and title track Greed, Tyranny & Sodomy begins with a melodic, ballad-ish lead guitar line, almost tricking the listener into thinking that the label might have pressed the wrong track onto the album, yet any such misunderstandings are cleared as the band once again goes into their hyperactive mode from the 1 minute mark onwards.

One thing that slightly marred the experience though: while the music on the album is overall enjoyable, the lyrical department gets slightly weak at times. While as already mentioned above, easy lyrics make for easy sing/shoutalong, but on songs like Attention Terrorist, it gets cheesy ("Everything revolves around me!") and sounds slightly awkward being shouted out. However, such awkward moments are few and thus should not be a big factor considering the quality music.

The band, despite not having any releases at all between the previous album and this, has managed to display that they still have the ability to do what they do best. If you like metal fast and aggressive, Greed, Tyranny & Sodomy is certainly an album not to be missed.