A Beautiful Atrocity

Review Score: (10/10)
The first time I heard this record was during a break at band practice. The guitar player announced that I should 'check out the double bass work this dude does.' After listening and thinking 'damn ...' I checked out the rest of the record and was hooked. As a metal album, it's one of the best I've heard and is well above the typical 'sludge metal' sound of bands from the same area of Louisiana (like Soylent Green, etc ...). Dax's voice is, simply, beautiful. The late Audie Pitre's screams are chilling and added a true sinister element to the overall sound of the band -- but nothing tops Dax. To sing such atrocities like 'How much more must we bleed?/I cut their throats while they sleep/I peel back my skull for you' in such a beautiful baritone presents the brilliant duality inherent here. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it were a love song -- though the actual lyrical content states different.

The guitar work is typical of such music, though the solos don't try to emulate the trademark Slayer solo sound. They're done tastefully and are hardly intrusive. Aside from the balls out metal tracks, there're two (yes, two) instances of Dax's chilling poetry, read through a vocoder to lower the tone of his voice to something you'd hear in a nightmare over some creepy loops that add to the overall presence of the record. Also present are two ballads, 'New Death Sensation' and 'Dead Girl,' which put's Dax's voice at the forefront. Sung over some very well done acoustic guitar parts, they mark points in the record to settle down, catch your breath and get ready for the next onslaught.

I highly reccomend this record to anyone looking for some true beauty and poetry in metal. And if you become a fan of Dax's voice, as most listeners do, pick up his other band's work ... Agents of Oblivion, which can be best described as doom blues, and Deadboy and the Elephant Men, which I don't believe has been official released.

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