Review Summary: Brutal and fast grinding death metal but the songs are too short.
I mostly enjoy music but I also love TV and especially movies. Have you ever seen the Predator movies or played the Alien vs. Predator computer games? If so, then you know that alien creature that can see your body temperature with different sorts of night vision-modes and uses invisibility to camouflage itself. I think it is pretty unusual to find bands that have lyrics based on different movies, and since I love the Predator movies (especially the first one) I decided to check out this band. It is a mix between ordinary speedy death metal, brutal death and grindcore. Their name is
Quest of Aidance and the band came to life in 2004 in the metal country Sweden.
Quest of Aidance has still not released a full-length album, as they have yet made a demo and an EP, but the demo is the same as the EP. The only thing that makes them different is that the EP has a new album cover and the names are different.
Human Trophy was the name of the demo and the EP is now called
Fallen Man Collection which was released in 2006.
Mac: Over here (gets Dillon's attention) Turn around.
Dillon: Why?
(Picks the scorpion off his back with a knife)
Dillon: Thanks!
Mac: Any time!
Fallen Man Trophy is, in my mind, an awesome grinding death album. Most if the songs only have a time length of about 1 minute, and only one track is more than two minutes, which is
Man Is The Harvest. Even if there are very short tracks you still get a full minute of rampaging, fast, brutal and controlled death metal madness from all the songs. The superb thing that what the band has done here is include the famous Predator sounds, like the pulsing sound during the night vision modes, the animal-like snarling and the recordings of the mercenaries talking and laughing. This gives the listener proof of smart creativity and seriousness, and while some people might think that it is a lame idea to write lyrics based on movies, I think it sounds great. You can actually notice that the band has placed the tracks in almost the same order as the whole movie,
Distant World Arrival displays the arrival of the Predator,
The Hunter And The Prey tells you that the humans are now the ones who are hunted,
7th Target is basically the last of the mercenaries (Major Dutch) that the Predator is going to hunt down. So you can see that
Quest of Aidance have put some thought into this a bit before they lined up the tracks, and this gives them an extra bonus for creativity. Eight tracks makes a total of ten minutes, but trust me, if you like explosive brutal death or grindcore
Fallen Man Collection will not disappoint you!
Gold Tooth: King Willie says, not only do I have to kill you, but
I have to take your soul. Voodoo magic. F****** voodoo magic, man!
Gold Tooth: But you know what? I tell you what I believe: *** happens!
The music is pretty straight forward; massive and highly concentrated death metal mixed with some splashes from the grindcore genre. There's deep guttural and demonic beast growls that flow along great with the devastating music, but there isn't really anything new in terms of vocal performances. This band contains already experienced metal musicians, as they have one member from
Scar Symmetry (which is a guitarist and backup singer here) and two members here from
Torchbearer, and you can definitely hear that there are some influences from
Torchbearer, especially in the guitar work. Anyway, the guitars are rock solid and have a massive sound. This is pretty much the basic formula of death riffs; there is a ton of chaos in the fast shredding riff work and I will also say that the riff structures are quite semi-technical. These guitars are definitely more technical than other bands that claim to be playing technical death.
Distant World Arrival and
Cranial Works of Art are two of the songs that have great moments were you can head bang. There are not many guitar solos here but I would say that the solos are very fast and chaotic. Imagine that you mix
Metallica and
Slayer solos and add some more speed to them. In other words, the guitars are great in this album since there is a good overall variety in the guitar work. Surprisingly, there's even an audible bass since it backs up the guitars very well, and while there might be no standout bass moments I'm afraid, it definitely increases the heavy sound. Here we have the basics in grindcore music, hyper fast blast beats. But there are not only continues blast beats, since this is mainly raw death metal you also have great mid-paced drumming and other various drum sections. The risk of this album being repetitive is very low thanks to the varied drum work.
Poncho: Major, you better take a look at this.
Dutch: Did you find Hawkins!?
Poncho: I-I can't tell.
Since this EP was very short, it was easy to listen through and there were many things that I really enjoyed. Since I love the Predator movies I was very curious of how this could sound like, and in the end I was surprised and quite entertained. First you have this brutal form of music and then you could hear the Predator sounds, which gave the songs a very unique formula. The massive and well-structured songs were also great, even if their lengths were incredibly short. I also have to give the vocals some credit too; you have first deep guttural growls which are also backed up with additional growls, truly an awesome sound I must say.
Peter Keyes: He's on safari. The lions, the tigers, the bears...oh, my!
If I could add something to the music then it would've been more "classic" lines from the movies just to spice up the album a bit more (more of the human voices rather than the Predator noises). This point is just a personal thing but if the tracks could hold to at least a bit more than two minutes then it would've been perfect. One thing which I thought was bad was the track called
7th Target which has a time limit of seven poor little seconds.
Imminence was also a track I didn't like so much, as it is more like an intro to the whole material. Also,
Imminence only has the sound effects from when the Predator walks around in the destroyed guerrilla camp and then plays the recordings from the American soldiers. If the band could put the grind aside but still make songs like these with a longer life span, it would be awesome.
Poncho: Billy, you know something, what is it?
Billy: I'm scared Poncho.
Poncho: Bull****! You ain't afraid of no man.
Billy: There is something out there waiting for us, and it ain't no man.
Billy: We all are going to die.
Here is the final judgment: if I was to see a grindcore or brutal death metal album in a store or such, I would not buy them as soon as I see them, and that's because I might find it horrible when I listen to it. I was just looking around on a site to search for Swedish brutal death and I randomly found
Quest of Aidance. I read their background history and later I downloaded some mp3 tracks on their website, and after that I was hooked.
Fallen Man Collection had everything that I was looking for, and this must be the first time I experienced such perfect blend between death metal and grindcore.
Quest of Aidance can become a highly devastating and backbreaking band if they choose to continue in the direction they are moving in now. People who love very intense brutal death metal with deep guttural vocals will love this album and will be craving for more after one listen. Fans of grindcore would also find this as a very interesting album but death heads would be the ones who would love this album the most.
Positives
+ This EP grabs you by the balls and won't let go
+ The drums works like clockwork with the guitars
+ Superb and powerful guttural growls
+ The added sound effects creates a extra texture to the entire material
+ Even if the songs are set to one minute you still feel satisfied after you have listened to them
+ This album is easy to "accept" since the lyrics are based from the Predator movies
Negatives
- The songs could've been like 30 seconds or one minute longer
- The album cover from the demo was better than the new one
- 7th Target (c'mon,
is seven seconds even enjoyable?)
Recommended Tracks
-- Distant World Arrival (
can be downloaded at their website)
-- Cranial Works of Art (
can be downloaded at their website)
-- Man Is the Harvest
If you thought that the movie music was boring then you might like this better, this album (EP) will be given a bullet-proof 4/5
Blain: If you loose it here, you're in a world of hurt.
