Review Summary: A rehash of the debut that was just wrapped up in a new box with a fancier artwork
The original debut titled Surgical Assault by The Partisan Turbine in 2006 was, of course, a deathcore album, but it was a decent deathcore album at the least. What struck me first about the band was its pretty impressive drumworks, and the amount of unexpected twists and turns it made that helped to guide the album in a much more interesting direction. It saved the band by setting its sound just a few degrees apart from its more mediocre peers. Despite the very* short time length of the album, the amount of energy that the band displayed gave a few good punches, and made Surgical Assault a decent grind-influenced deathcore album. It had a few good songs like "Parasitic Slaughter", "Inertia", and "Surgical Assault" that actually displayed some staying power when given just a few listens.
I allowed myself to listen to their self-titled album of 2008. I was expecting the band to have grown a little from their first effort. two years is a very good time for bands to work on their chops, and expand on their material. The ambient intro track starts the album up slowly, and it crescendos until the guitars enters with a few tremelo picking lines and then a decent sounding breakdown. I wasn't too surprised because this was the same gimmick that was used on Surgical Assault. Then B.F.G comes in, which isn't too impressive, and just sounded like another chug chug deathcore song. I also noticed the big difference in sound production quality compared to SA. The guitars sounds like its coming out of a cheap epiphone, and the drums sounds really tame in the background (as tame-sounding as deathcore/grind drumwork can get). The vocalists also sounds like he's been smoking a little too much right before recording, and have a raspy sigh to his screams that doesn't deliver the same energy in the first album.
What came after that was a slew of inferior versions of songs that were on the previous release. On the reworked version of "Surgical Assault" I can barely hear the pinch harmonics being buried behind the muffled chaos, and the lack of sound quality just took away the energy of the music, and made the album sound monotonous and boring. I realized I was listening to a rehash of the debut that was only wrapped up in a new box with a fancier artwork. It definitely does not live up to the expectations of a softmore release or even a self-titled*. The two extra songs that were placed in the release just doesn't deliver and makes the album look less of what it is with the lack of new direction being given.
Overall, the album was a waste of time. It only gave an impression that the artists didn't want to showcase new material or make any display of improvement. I am not saying that The Partisan Turbine don't have potential, but I know they can do way better than re-releasing the same crap from two years before in a different packaging. If you have potential, then you better act on it, not become stagnant and just sit back and shove old songs in a CD and try calling it a "new" album.
