Embalming Theatre/Hacksaw Surgery - D-Composition
70%
From Australia’s Grindhead Records we received a lovely split album by the bands Embalming Theatre and Hacksaw Surgery. The first band has been at it since 2000 and has released numerous obscure discs. The other is new to the world, and therefore this is their first release. Let's check out D-Composition.
Well obviously grindcore is what you get. The ten tracks offered by Switzerland’s Embalming Theatre are pretty good, at times they even remind me of a grindcore Immolation. Especially the vocals give me this idea. For the rest this band incorporates a lot of humour in their music, which is quite common in this scene. They do this with a lot of (mostly German) samples, and in the track ‘Combine With A Turbine’ there is this ridiculous accordion-like instrument throughout the track, making it sound very idiotic but funny nonetheless. Add a cover from Napalm Death’s ‘Lucid Fairytale’ and you’ve got a barrel of monkeys.
The next band isn’t that funny at all. Hacksaw Surgery hails from New Zealand and they contribute six song to this split record. I’ll just be honest, the recordings sound like shit, especially the vocals sound like crap. The guitars are alright up to a certain point, but the real problem lies with the drum computer in my opinion. It’s too loud in the mix and it’s too apparent it’s a drum computer with programming coming from someone who doesn’t know too much about drumming and rhythms so it seems. Overall, this sucks.
In the end you can say this is a split album with good tracks coming from the more experienced (these guys have released 16 split albums, including this one!) Embalming Theatre and just plain shit coming from Hacksaw Surgery. So I give the first band a 7 out of 10 and the other band a 3 out of ten. Combined this makes a 5 for the total score. Clear enough I’d say.
