Fukk II

This death/black metal hybrid gets a little bit funky on "Fukk II," with a clear loss of direction compared to Sadistik Exekution's earlier works. It's a shame because earlier works from the band had a lot of potential and there was a gritty appeal to the album that this one is a sequel to. It seems the band released leftovers from the Fukk studio sessions and just called it an album. If this isn't what happened, then I'm not quite sure how else to explain what went wrong on this album.

After a boring instrumental, "Homicidal Sewerside" is presented as the first tried and true song, and man is it a mess. The guitars feel kind of thrown into the mix at random, with the riffs not really leading anywhere. The production is pretty awful as well, and the drum pattern is uninteresting. The bass is mixed pretty awfully as well. Then "Bleeding Insanity" comes on, with an annoying guitar tone, schizophrenic vocals that are not enjoyable, and a fuzzy bass line that doesn't sound good. This song is the musical equivalent of paying for a cheap locker on Storage Wars and opening it up to a mess so great it's not worth the time to sift through. There is really nothing of value here.

"Mental Derailment" sounds like it was inspired by the Peter Steele-fronted Carnivore, but taking almost all of the weird things about the band and jamming them into an overcrowded, over-compressed wall of noise. The riff isn't terrible on this song but it's very hard to hear with everything that's going on. The vocals are also impossible to hear on nearly every song, so whatever frontman Rok is screaming about, we'll never know, not that his vocal delivery is all that interesting. The brief moments of relief where the band slows the hell down and puts a little bit of effort into the art they're creating are greatly appreciated, like on "Arkhon the Graverobber," but it's still not that good. When you can actually hear the notes being played, you realize there is very little going on and no special tricks are being used on any of the instruments. The manic laughing is a nice touch here, but it is far from enough to redeem the song.

There are so many head-scratchers on this thing. Like the tirade of curse words on that "Graverobber" song, or the useless wall of noise that the band will sometimes let a song devolve into. It doesn't help that the production does absolutely no favors to the music here, and while it would be nice to hear what the hell the band is playing, it's sort of a relief that we can't hear everything. We have to speculate at how basic the musicianship of this album is. There are a few quality moments, like a couple of the ideas on "The Electrical Chair," but these ideas are few and far between, and sure as hell do not cover for the forty-two minutes of annoying slop that this album is. Look earlier in the band's discography, or turn away completely, but don't listen to this.