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Shaolin Death Squad - Intelligent Design CD (album) cover

INTELLIGENT DESIGN

Shaolin Death Squad

 

Progressive Metal

4.07 | 82 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Wayler
4 stars So, I was browsing through progarchives for some new progressive metal to listen to. I came across this one with an interesting band name and some seemingly beautiful artwork to boot. As I was floored by the first track's title, I knew I atleast had to listen to this one. And come on, a ninja at the drums, this can't be bad!

Can't say I'm the number one fan when it comes to Avantgarde approach in metal, which I guess this represents. Though I did like an album from Arcturus and this does vocally sound arcturusian at times. Also I had a weird flashback from way back when my dad listened to some band called Sparks, I think. The weird operatic singing probably was a factor here. The album was called Kimono in My House and as these guys seem to draw inspiration from japanese kabuki theater with the costumes and all, I guess it's not so far fetched. Sparked metal with a twist this one could be called. Hey, that sounds like a cool drink. Some rusty nails at the bottom, covered in vodka, served by throwing at your face.

Okay, maybe not that extreme, cause these guys produce some mellow moments from time to time. If you're looking for structure, it's pretty hard to find here. It's all a big mess but with just enough strings to keep it together. At times though, it is a little way out there for my ears. Keypoints to Intelligent Design would be the hilarious and heavy opener "A Terrible Way to Use a Sword". "Choreographer of Fate" goes down the calmer rout with some excellent operatic vocals and almost a playlike structure. "Fall, Rise, Laugh...Fall" introduces more craziness with russian kalinkametal middlesection, or something. And damn what a shredfest is the "A Story Lives Forever" piece.

So I guess friends of weird and unstructured metal will be in heaven here. For us regular and sane people, with a little patience, there are some great moments to be discovered with Shaolin Death Squad.

Wayler | 4/5 |

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