Review Summary: Very sick album. Super technical, super nuts, crazy vocals. For people who like fast and kind of weird music. Gets pretty fucking heavy sometimes. To sum it up in four words: killer, mean, bright, confusing.
Cloaca: A common cavity at the end of the digestive tract for the release of both excretory and genital products in vertebrates and certain invertebrates.
Kiss: Touch with the lips as a sign of love, sexual desire, reverence, or greeting.
Hmmm... While pleasing to the ears the name Cloacal Kiss holds a connotation that is somehow intriguing, confusing, and revolting. Their lyrics are just as abstract, ambiguous and vulgar. And with song names like, "Makeshift Cock Recepticle" one might conclude that Cloacal Kiss are another brutal horror band that is, while maybe fun for a few seconds at a time, really boring and uninventive. On the contrary, I find that it took me about five to six real sit-down and listens until I felt like I really understood what they were playing in most their songs.
The technicality of these dudes is madness. Their guitars are going fast at all times with arpeggios, tremolo picking, harsh chords, and every once in a while some chug (but that's kept pretty seldom and it adds considerably to the music. Not breakdowns). I know that any metal band that shreds is going to have these elements, but these guys are hitting some pretty original harmonies and note structures. And needless to say, the vocals are the icing on the cake. Many people, i am sure, just get ear aches from this shrill, high pitched, wail of a shriek that presides above the music like a thin line of static at the top of your tv screen; watching zombie movies. But it fits right in place with the strangely heavy and fast guitars that paint a picture that I would describe as yellow; I don't know just exactly how but the name of the album, "Easter," I feel, connotes the feel of the album very well. Not in a religious way at all, but the music seems to create a bright sound, with an ironic, evil twist on it.
Now, it can get repetitive and if you just sit down and let it play all of the songs will very likely hardly be distinguishable (except for 'I am the Brute Squad,' and 'Red Mask'). But that is simply because these guys are producing so much noise, so many notes, so many time signature changes, and stringing it all together with a confident continuity that holds the mood for the entire album. But after multiple listens, and probably even some consideration, the songs start to take more shape and you may actually even recognize some of the things that they are playing, and figure out how they put it together. The bass, as far as I can tell, is right up to par with the speed and technicality of the guitars, and it's pretty well audible; which is really nice, because I always find it disappointing when there is no bass because you know it just means the kid isn't good enough to keep up, so it's just rhythm notes, or they really don' want you to hear it. But the musician ship all around is spot on. They keep it consistent (and sometimes repetitive) but diverse and chaotic enough to make it interesting. The vocals match up great, and he has a good use of growls. The only bummer on the side of musicianship is that the drums are programmed. They are programmed extremely well, but it'd be nice to know that there was actually a guy playing it. OH well.
Overall, I think this album is totally awesome. I highly recommend it for anyone who is into very technical metal, and experimentation. These guys have created a pretty unique sound for themselves, and they pull it off really well. The songs I am the Brute Squad and Red Mask make me wonder if they were just trying to fill some space on the cd, but they can be enjoyable none-the-less.
Give it multiple listens, and really pay attention to what they are doing, because the more you start to get what's being played the better it gets. That's my opinion at least.
