RANDOM'S MANIFEST

Which one of you is Acid Death ?

Acid Death returned from a very good debut album to release this, their second album. Acid Death was always an untraditional band. Their base were in the thrash/death metal scene, but they were not confined to thrash/death metal. On this album, they are everywhere. From glam metal to jazz to eclectic prog to nu-metal. The result is an album that starts off like a decent thrash metal album and then totally goes of the hook to everywhere. That does not make a coherent album. This almost a compilation album with various Acid Death's constellations.

In short; this is a mess with some decent contributions. There are some good stuff here, but the album is fatally flawed by being this diverse. It is like eating beef with strawberry jam. Not a good combination.

2 stars

"Random's Manifest" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Greek technical/progressive death/thrash metal act Acid Death. The album was released through Black Lotus Records in the spring of 2000. Acid Death formed in 1989 and released a couple of demos, a single, and split with Avulsed, before releasing their debut full-length studio album "Pieces of Mankind" in 1998. They disbanded in 2001, but not before releasing "Random's Manifest" in 2000. Acid Death reunited in 2011 and have released new material since. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as guitarist Themis K. has been replaced by Nikos Andreadakis.

Stylistically the material on "Random's Manifest" pretty much continues the progressive/technical death/thrash metal which was initiated on "Pieces of Mankind (1998)". It´s music highly focused on technical playing. Time signature changes, challenging death/thrash riffs, the occasional jazz/fusion part, and adventurous song structures are some of the characteristics of the music. "Random's Manifest" is a relatively diverse release with both harder edged aggressive sections, atmospheric sections, and melodic sections. Artists like Coroner, Sadist, and Death are valid references, but Acid Death aren´t copycats, and don´t really sound like anyone else in particular.

"Random's Manifest" features a decent sound production, but it could have been more powerful. The musicianship is on a high level on all posts, but the raw/growling vocals are a bit powerless to my ears. They get the job done, but they aren´t exactly caustic in nature. There´s sparse use of clean vocals on the album too, but it´s not enough to make much impact.

Upon conclusion "Random's Manifest" leaves me with a similar impression to the impression I got after listening to "Pieces of Mankind (1998)". It´s a good quality technical/progressive death/thrash metal release, and especially fans who favor technical playing and adventurous song structures over catchiness and hooks should be able to find quite a lot of listening satisfaction here. To my ears more focus on the songwriting and memorability of the tracks and less on the technical playing and creative songwriting ideas would have made the album a little more interesting. There´s nothing wrong with highly technical music, and artists like for example Atheist, Cynic, and Watchtower pull off playing very technical music and still successfully write memorable material, but Acid Death just aren´t in that league of players. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)