Review Summary: "Shut up and bow"
Fluidity is the highest aspiration any intensely technical metal band should strive for. It’s the ability to play music densely populated with notes and time signature changes at a blistering pace and making it seem effortlessly arranged. Many bands crumble under their own weight to make their songs as technical as possible, but for Logistic Slaughter, weaving technicality and elegance comes off as second nature to them. With their sophomore release,
Lower Forms of Life, Logistic Slaughter hone in on all of the strengths of their debut and have created one of the most unique brutal death metal albums of the year.
The immediate draw to this album is Jeremy Scott’s vocal performance, which is frenzied, elastic, and, strangely enough, very reminiscent of Korn. With the way his flow lands directly on the constantly shuffling beat, he’s almost scatting his way through these songs a la Jonathan Davis. While this approach can lead to some repeated vocal patterns, like Jonathan Davis' scatting, it is extremely fun to imitate in a stream of consciousness manner. A lot of the hooks on this album come from whatever strange noise Scott is gonna make next.
The Korn comparisons don’t stop there. For one, Spencer Metela’s bass tone is stringy and clattering not unlike Fieldy’s signature sound, albeit presented with far more dexterity. The other, more prominent similarity is Logistic Slaughter’s strong sense of groove. That’s where this band’s sense of fluidity comes in, at no point does this band ever stop grooving. Drummer Kendric DiStefano, guitarist Michael Flory, and Metela are so locked into each other, which enables them to move through riffs with a level of grace that would make Defeated Sanity blush. Couple that with a delightfully unhinged vocal performance, and you have one of the most dynamic groups not just to hit brutal death metal, but the wider spectrum of technical heavy music. The band have that special touch you need for this type of music, which is to make the convoluted and complex feel logical.
