EXTRACTING THE CORE

"Extracting the Core" is the first live album by Canadian, Quebec based technical death metal act Martyr. The album was released through Skyscraper Music in 2001. In addition to the audio part of the album, "Extracting the Core" features a multimedia presentation for CD-Rom drive which includes live pictures and samples.

"Extracting the Core" features the three tracks "Inner Peace", "Hopeless Hopes" and "Prototype" from the debut full-length studio album "Hopeless Hopes (1997)" and six tracks from Martyr´s second full-length studio album "Warp Zone (2000)". Among others the brilliant and powerful title track. Martyr play a technical death metal style with varied extreme vocals and some great musicianship which includes some really excellent shredding guitar solos. Martyr´s musical approach isn´t completely unlike a more technical/complex version of Death (with a few twist and turns which provide Martyr with a sound of their own).

"Extracting the Core" is overall a pretty enjoyable affair but it´s not brilliant by any means. The playing is flawless and the vocals are strong but it´s like the atmosphere isn´t right. This could just as well have been a live in the studio recording with added muted audience noises and comments in french from the band. I´m not really feeling the sweaty and intense atmosphere that I´m sure Martyr are more than capable of creating in a live environment. With that said "Extracting the Core" is still worth a listen or two but I do prefer the studio versions of the tracks. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is fair.