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Atomizer > Caustic Music for the Spiritually Bankrupt > Reviews
Atomizer - Caustic Music for the Spiritually Bankrupt

Cool Album Title! - 88%

WinterBliss, December 28th, 2008

Hell's Headbangers Records, home to many great acts such as Destruktor, Profanatica, and Bestial Mockery, as well as a slew of black thrash bands and the infamous Nunsluaghter, typically carries an air of raw black/thrash and only the most true and cult of bands. With what little I've heard from many of the bands on the label I tend to mix them up, bands like Trench Hel(later I gave them a full listen, awesome black thrash in the vein of Venom and Motorhead), Victimizer, Atomizer, Evil Army, and whatever else never really struck a chord with me because of the environment of HHR and the often indistinguishable quality of their brand of black thrash. Why this meaningless dribble you ask? I'm getting there, hold on....


Well unlike many of the bands I've heard from HHR Atomizer really sticks out and is simply an usual band, especially for being labeled of "black thrash." Atomizer's Caustic Music For the Spiritually Bankrupt is a well developed and established piece of music, something any band should be proud of as their final release. The album is full of eerie, melodic and rockish sounding hooks and riffs. Primarily the album is dominated by midpaced thrashy riffs, but songs like "A Song to Swing To," "A Date With Eternity," and "The Inevitable Mutiny" contain jarring, ethereal guitar notes which stretch on and on and add to this murky kind of "foggy" atmosphere if you will. Continuously the album defies it's genre type with plenty of rock drum beats, catchy and tame guitar playing and what i can only describe as a melodramatic, gothic type of voice used to give a more storyteller vibe to the singer.

Atomizer is far from a pretentious avant garde metal band, but at the same time they avoid any sense of being mundane or linear. On one hand we have the more atmospheric and rocky tracks that also tend to showcase a more clean/ "gothic" singing style "A Date With Eternity" "The Inevitable Mutiny" and "Our Final Campaign" and then on the other we get more thrashy songs that showcase less control vocally (less use of the campfire voice, more of the typical raspy thrash vocals) like "As The Blackening Waves Of Fear Within Me Rise" (which also contains one of the few blast beats of the album) and "Flowering Spores Of Imagination." While the band is able to mix about different moods, grooves, atmospheres and guitar playing, they are able to pull off an extremely fluid and cohesive album, one that is never a struggle to little to the full way through. The songs I mentioned prior are not strictly in those realms, as every song contains a mixture of the dark rock feel, as well as the black thrash feel. I personally am unable to point to which side of Atomizer I like more. The songs like "Upon The Lamb Of God They Suckle No More" and "All Disfigured And Blue" contain a thrashy, yet catchy and hummable melody that showcases the mixture of the two extremes that Atomizer exhibits throughout the album. These two songs, along with "A Date With Eternity" are probably my favorites and the high points of the album.


While I thoroughly enjoy the mixture of dark rock, black metal(the most sparse of the mixture) and thrash, I still find myself having a tough time with the vocals of the album. If there's a weak point for this album, it defiantly lies in the vocals. The thrashy, more metal vocals are exempt, i have no problem with them, it's the melodramatic and "ghost story" voice I find error with. Vocal parts like the beginning of "Our Final Campaign" and the entirety of "A Song To Swing To" really made me cringe at first, enough to make me almost dismiss the band completely. It's pretty much hit or miss i suppose with this vocal style, as they're quite prevalent throughout the album and can't be ignored. I grew to appreciate aspects of them, particularly the sections where the more interesting lyrics reveal themselves aren't that bad, but it's not to say I wish a different voice was used entirely. As much as I might dislike the voice, it does fit the mood and the tone of the album. So at least it doesn't stick out from the rest of the music like a sore thumb (think they way the vocals of Vio-Lence or early Burzum stick out way too much for their own good).


Another surprise from this band was the lyrics. While I don't own a copy of the album(I plan on getting the ultra limited deluxe super rare pretty vinyl that HHR has put out of this recording) nor do i see any lyrics, what I've picked up simply by ear i find myself really enjoying. Like the voice, and the description given of it, the lyrics contain a very story driven vibe to me. Songs like "Hail Hail To The Hangman," "All Disfigured And Blue," and "The Inevitable Mutiny" seem to tell a story of sorts, which adds to this gloomy, swampy, dare i say 'evil pirate" vibe i get from this album. I look forward to actually reading the lyrics(if they're printed) or future listens and discerning exactly what is going on. "A Date With Eternity," which probably ties into "Hail Hail To The Hangman" seems to tell the story of a man awaiting his execution, a song, and lyrics which are executed excellently.


While Atomizer's Caustic Music For The Spiritually Bankrupt is a strong effort, it fumbles a bit as it shambles towards its musical vista. The vocals fit, but do hinder the album and the experience as a whole. Every song on the album contains at least one saving grace (with the exception of the non-musical track "The Song That Sounds Your Final Dawn"), so there's nothing truly worth skipping. I really would have liked to see a better vocal performance, being that this album was a very rewarding and nice surprise, and it would be all the better with a more focused and executed vocal performance. This is defiantly a gem of HHRs narrow-minded super satanic brand of metal and one of the better releases of 2008. I have no knowledge of older Atomizer, but I have a feeling that this album is a departure from their earlier work, while not an extreme difference, I feel that there's a lot less thrash and a lot less black metal on this album as opposed to their older work.


This album is defiantly worth a download, it is not for everyone, but then again what is? Approach with an open mind and try and listen to the lyrics, not the voice.


On a side note, the opening bass line for "Upon The Lamb Of God They Suckle No More" reminds me a lot of "Six Pack" by Black Flag, anyone else? Oh, and I love Hell's Headbangers, a lot of good stuff, and fun stuff, it's just not the most diverse label; so don't get offended!