T.O.O.H.!

"Democratic Solution" is the 4th full-length studio album by Czech Republic extreme metal act !T.O.O.H.!. The album was released by the band as a free digital download in August 2013. Apparently it's meant to be the last album by !T.O.O.H.!. I'll take that with a grain of salt though as they've already disbanded one time before in 2005 after they were dropped by Earache Records, and since we now have "Democratic Solution" to listen to, they clearly have trouble dissolving the band completely.

!T.O.O.H.! consists of the two-piece Schizoid (Drums, Vocals) and Humanoid (Bass, Guitars, Vocals, Programming) and were on their previous releases known for their odd take on technical/progressive death metal. This time around they've taken their music in an even more odd direction as "Democratic Solution" sounds like a computer game version of an extreme metal release. Blabbering Czech language vocals, which sometimes sound like the singer is drunk or having a raving party, what sounds like technical programmed drums and odd buzzing guitars are more or less what make up the sound on "Democratic Solution". It's like a kid's birthsday party gone wrong. It's certainly both complex and avant garde in execution, but not necessarily uninviting or difficult. Just weird...

The vocals are mostly clean and the melody lines (however odd and sometimes almost childish in nature) are generally pretty catchy. Even though the use of extreme vocal styles is very limited on "Democratic Solution", it's still a very extreme release. Just on other parameters than the extremity of the vocal delivery.

This is pretty surely not music for everyone, and even extreme metal listeners who are used to avant garde elements, might find themselves a bit challenged here. Personally I find "Democratic Solution" oddly charming but at times also slightly annoying, so it's definitely an album I have to be in the right mood to appreciate. There is no questioning the originality of the product, the excellent musicianship or the quality of the relatively well sounding production though and based on that, but also taking into consideration by ambivalent feelings toward the album, a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

Wow, never has there ever been a tech metal band that could pull off such energy and structures this well in those styles. Usually for tech metal, bands like Nile, Krisiun, and Cryptopsy tend to have some drumming styles that tend to be overuse and too tight to the point where it becomes a chore to listen to, mostly with Nile. Riffs get too stale and they never seem to go anywhere. But !T.O.O.H.!'s "Order and Punishment" manages to avoid this pitfall.

The drumming may have similarities to the aforementioned tech metal bands, but it manages to support the riffs rather well and sound just well enough to not drown out the music and manages to be pretty precise as well. The drumming also varies from a fast to a moderate tempo in the middle of the songs too, adding a great dynamic pace that keeps you coming back.

The riffs here have the rasp grindcore sound that makes the music really harsh and brutal, at times even more brutal than Nile and Krisiun. The music at times even sounds atonal, but manages to pull it off so well where most tech bands couldn't pull it off well. However, the band manages to add melody to the brutality and manages to fit rather well, most of the time. There are some moments, such as in Rad a Trest, where the melodic bit is out of place, but this is very few an far in between. Another exceptional note is that the production also lets you hear the bass as well, even as it follows the riffs and it follows it rather well.

And finally, the vocals, which sound like Beavis when he drink a ton of cappuccinos and turn into Cornholio, but in this case, a very aggressive and threatening Cornholio. Not something you'd hear in this kind of music, but it just adds to the aggressive and harsh music. To add even more, read the lyrics translated in English if you dare. I can only say it's the most bizzare things I've ever read.

Order and Punishment manages to get most things right where other tech metal bands don't. Shifting paces in the middle of each song manages to hold listeners interest along with the harsh grindcore riffs and the surprisingly well implementation of melody. Even the most atonal moments work rather well. Excellent production in this album makes each instruments, especially the bass, audible and doesn't manage to take over one another. And finally, the spazzy energy of the vocals as well as the lyrics adds to the harsh music. You'll be hard pressed to find metal this well structured and engaging as this. Highly recommended for metal fans who are looking for something complex and something different.

9.3/10

The Czech Republic was always a bed for the really unique (and sometimes sadly ended) metal bands, !T.O.O.H.! is just one of them. Order and Punishment is their last, and i think their strongest effort. The progressive death/jazz/grind mixture is not a well-known and popular genre in this world so I think I was lucky to start with this one. Can't name any influence (or too many) to descibe this band's music because nothing stands really close to it. You can find songs from brutal grinding to epic, sometimes melodic grinding. Yes, the band's default tempo is fast, just as many grindcore bands, but this music is really awesome, unlike the other bands.

If you get used to the vocals and the "strange" (definitely not the best word for it) style of the band you'll enjoy every minute of this album.

So sad that they don't exist anymore, though their postmortem band Duobetic Homunkulus is worth a checking. However, you will miss the vocals...

Explosive. Czech language sounds very great here! It is satanic, though actually some of many folk influences you can hear in this album reminds me of Israeli culture - maybe because it sounds a bit like some Israeli people have gone crazy and pagan (does the language sound same?.). Mostly this album sounds like (JAZZ!) grindcore (I mean the feeling of it) but there's also much for example brutal, atmospheric and melodic folk death metal - but all in all there isn't time to relax or symphonically different kind of parts, it's pure energy all the way. And it's technical all the way. Progressiveness comes with the fact that this music is complex mess, found its own sound though there's very many influences. Middle-European hard folk rock and underground punk culture can be heard with Nile-like catacombic atmosphere and mysticism. Orks are vomiting, vikings are sailing and crazy people are cursing. there's also more aggressive powerful brutal death metal parts, like Padaji, Piskaji.

I recommend this for everybody who has some good experiences of any kind of extreme metal, for drummers, vocalists (and guitarists) because here's many very nice inventive things, and for hardcore punk friends!

I would give four or five stars as a metal album, and as progressive rock.. well, maybe this is hard-to-understand music even for progheads.. i don't know. I somehow want to give four stars but.. SUFFER YOU METAL!

This is exceptionally schizo stuff and definitely worth investigating if you have come to the edge of the cliff in terms of extreme music and are searching for something new and unique....hard to find, but worth investigating further!