FROM MARS TO SIRIUS

Thanks to Ansen (The Miracle) for leading me to what is now officially the heaviest metal album in my collection. This band is a freight train coming straight through your living room. Never has being pummeled been so much fun.

The sound is so unique here. The drumming is so heavy and forefront that it's almost as if the drums are the lead instrument on several tracks, totally burying the axemen. Guitars are fierce but mostly paint a wall of thrash sound as opposed to solos. There are not the traditionally wailing lead solos to be found here. The vocals sound to me like Henry Rollins cross-bred with Tyrannosaurus Rex, absolute hellfire but yet oddly soothing to me. I like to listen to this album in rush hour traffic as it keeps me from having a Michael Douglas "Falling Down" moment. There is more of the metronomic mechanical blast drumming than I prefer but it seems to work way better on this album than others.

Better than half of the tracks are pure heavy thrash with monster riffs and complex drumming. But the rest of the album does have some very nice departures that make this album special and add more dimension. The first is the instrumental "Unicorn" which is simply a pleasant repetitive clean guitar riff along with a subdued drum beat and sound effects that I believe are the whales in the background. It doesn't sound like much when you first hear it but it has a great peaceful atmosphere. "Flying Whales" is a standout that begins in a similar vein to "Unicorn" although more ambitious with good conversation between guitar, bass and drums. "World to Come" will alternate the undead-Rollins voice with a second clean voice. This along with a slower pace and a more notes-based lead guitar provides yet another sound for the band. "From Mars" is great, sounding like an early psych Floyd track with a metal edge-Syd would approve. The grand finale of "Global Warming" is truly a metal epic where they assemble the various aspects of their sound into a dramatic anthem with several good sections. Repetition in both the lead guitar hammer-on lick and the last hopeful line "we will see our children growing" bolster the sense that perhaps the chaos of earlier songs is turning to more stability; nicely wrapping up what has been quite a musical journey.

Yes this is masochist heavy, but I think it's one of the most unique metal albums I've heard and I have really grown to appreciate it. I can't wait to hear their next one. If you love metal, this one will float your boat, or fly your inner whale.