Savage Imperial Death March LP

[Dumpster D]

I should like to point out that a Compact disc PCM player has a much better dynamic flavour. Far superior to the output engine of a digital soundcard can produce from a crappy pancake flipping iphone.

You have to try it to hear the difference.. CD has a much better expanded range than sound card with the same track file.

I record tracks on garageband and they don't pass the test until I burn them on CD and use a discman, then you can really hear something that you couldn't before off a PC.

I cannot account for it by the numbers by my ear, it tells me so.

[Chief Ten Beers]

 USPS is really pissing me off with my cheapy CD shipment. I just tracked it. I'm in WNY, halfway between Buffalo and Rochester. The freaking thing went from MN to Philly which should have never happened, then back to Buffalo, only then to go the middle of the state in Syracuse, then back through Rochester, and as of last night it's back in Buffalo. Ridiculous. I remember a few times getting CDs from Shoxop in 2 days. Long gone are those days.

[the bloat]

OK people, the cheapy CDs have already sold out twice over, so I know SOME of you have listened to this album a few times. What are your thoughts? Does it hold up on repeated lessons?

[Dumpster D]

No even surprised, they'll just have to keep this CD/LP in circulation for a long time, it will just not stay on a shelf with a name like Napalm Death printed on it.

Melvins? Who are the Melvins? what a stupid bandname. Who would ever name their band the Melvins, right? ...right?  ?? ? ?? ?

But I gotta tell you, This felt like it should have happened in 2004-ish. by now.

So I'm grateful it happened, you did it!!! Here's to it.. Cheers guys.

Keep up the good work guys. Love you.

[Chief Ten Beers]

Got it yesterday. Great fucking collab album. I'll call it an album cuz it clocks in at 33 min. I'd say so far it's a close tie with that and the Helms Alee one as best AmRep collaboration release.

First few songs are like, OK this is good but not exactly what I expected. The last 3 songs things click into high gear, and are the best ones IMO. Love the various effects used. Would be interested to read an in depth interview of who played exactly what and came up with each song. There's some drum fills here and there, where I'm thinking that's definitely not Dale there, not his style.

The closing outro on Death Hour is a hoot, that classic Van Halen riff!

[moose]

[/quote]
I

Got it yesterday. Great fucking collab album. I'll call it an album cuz it clocks in at 33 min. I'd say so far it's a close tie with that and the Helms Alee one as best AmRep collaboration release.

First few songs are like, OK this is good but not exactly what I expected. The last 3 songs things click into high gear, and are the best ones IMO. Love the various effects used. Would be interested to read an in depth interview of who played exactly what and came up with each song. There's some drum fills here and there, where I'm thinking that's definitely not Dale there, not his style.

The closing outro on Death Hour is a hoot, that classic Van Halen riff!

I assumed it was all Dale. I hear Embury on bass and Some guitar shredding that is not Buzz.

[amazonAMAZON]

Yes, got mine yesterday and played it through front to back twice. I'm doing this from memory so pardon any errors:

"Tossing Coins" is all growls and noisy metal riffs. It's hilarious, still hooky. More Napalm than Melvins tomy ears. A good brief opening track.

"Some Kind of Antichrist" sounds more like a Melvins tune. Buzz's stilted shout-voice is prominent, the riff sounds like Buzz wrote it recently. It's another strong one that doesn't dwell too long .. until .. there's a synth-loop/noise section which is as long as the song itself. Total running time is about ten minutes.

"Nine Days of Rain" doesn't sound like a Buzz tune. It's built off of a morbid guitar arpeggio. Gang vocals most of the way through. You can make out Buzz's voice in places. This is maybe four minutes? The overall effect of the song is that it would have been a traveling song in the scrapped Muppets Vikings take Jerusalem movie.

"Rip the God" is the centerpiece of the album, for better or worse. Musically it sounds like a deep cut from side two of any proper Melvins album. The riff resembles "Boris" and something from A Walk with Love and Death. Buzz takes lead vocals most of the way. If you're not feeling like they've plagiarized themselves here it's likely a Melvins fan's favorite track.

"Stealing Horses" is a fun romp. This sounds like the kind high energy riff Buzz used on some parts of the last three new Melvins albums. Napalm take most of the vocals here. The timing and pitch are a little loose for my tastes but I think many people will enjoy this.

"Death Hour" is fundamentally a short little ripper of sorts which sounds quite collaborative to my ear. Though the song is only about a minute and a half there's another extended noise piece with some fun drumming and a little Easter egg at the end.

I agree with Chief and everybody else. It's the most collaborative sounding record of the whole bunch. It's up there in quality with the Helms Alee one. All the songs are original and it really sounds like both bands were enjoying the process.

Buzz doesn't really stray from his autistic-sounding bellowing. Barney, I guess, is Barney the whole way. It's all a wild romp.

It doesn't sound as polished as any of the Ipecac releases or even the Sabbath/Al record. But I'm not particularly distracted by poor mixing or recording. Drums are not the focus of the songs but if you pay attention to the drums there's tons of fun stuff there to dig into. Where you do hear the bass it has that kind of blown amp rumble like the single version of "Night Goat" perhaps.

If you can get your hands on the CD, vinyl, or whatever don't hold back. It's easily as rewarding as most new Melvins proper albums.

[the bloat]

Awesome reviews! Thanks all

[))))((((]

I managed to have a few listens to this record last night! I like it. 2 minutes shorter than Thunderball at 32 minutes so i consider it a proper album. I think i need a few more listens yet but i'd currently say it's an 8/10 for me. Which a good 80% of the time is the score i give to Melvins albums anyway. Both bands gel together well and work as one entity but there are times where it swings more towards Melvins or Napalm. So yeah not a great deal for me to say - it's good! Given the title of the last song 'Death Hour' i did suspect i knew which comedy riff it would be that would play at the end. I wasn't wrong!

[black stallion]

great reviews guys!

[))))((((]

I don't know what you guys think but i suspect the line up on this is Buzz, Dale, Shane and Barney. I don't think Steven or the rest of Napalm Death are on this.

[))))((((]

"Rip the God" is the centerpiece of the album, for better or worse. Musically it sounds like a deep cut from side two of any proper Melvins album. The riff resembles "Boris" and something from A Walk with Love and Death.

It really does! I can't think which song it is but it's definitely one on A Walk With Love & Death. It's VERY similar.

[glen]

Where you do hear the bass it has that kind of blown amp rumble like the single version of "Night Goat" perhaps.

definitely sounds like Shane on bass.   that's his sound.  heavy on the distortion and more of a bass riff than a bass line.   

[Dumpster D]

The original Scum effects pedals are a closely guarded secret from what I've tried to find out...Or was that Carcass?

 Scum had a lot of 'clipping' on the bass.

This guys having a little too much fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ8HsWsWU-U&embeds_referring_euri=http%3A%2F%2Fmetaldevastationradio.com%2Fcircle-of-tone%2Fyoutube%2F48131%2Fthe-cheap-secret-to-napalm-deaths-scum-bass-sound-revealed&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ

[))))((((]

I said this album is an 8/10. I'm now beginning to think it's pushing a hair under 9/10!! The last 4 minutes or so on the final song drags on a bit and pulls it down a fraction for me. Rip The God is the best song IMO.