Intestine Baalism are a somewhat paradoxical band which further proves my theory that the Japanese do everything better (than everyone). To be brief on explaining their sound, I'll just give you a quick synopsis; brutal melodic death metal. Therein lies the paradox, you see, they're a brutal melodic (brutally melodic?) death metal band. They manage to keep it heavy, loud and fast while still putting in just the right amount of melody, and they do both aspects perfectly. Imagine just for a moment if you will all the best aspects of
Cryptopsy and
Dark Tranquility (minus the electronic elements) mixed together flawlessly.
This, the bands second album, was one of those albums that instantly hit me. I think once the surprisingly catchy opening riff on track 2 hits me, I realize this is really something special. Track 2 is the title track, and it does a fair job representing their over all sound. As I said, it starts off with a really memorable melo-death riff, but then vocals of a harsher variety (than say, In Flames) kick in. While the track is perhaps more on the melodic side, the trade-off of sounds gets me everytime; I've had this track on repeat for the last 15 minutes. For a more brutal side of the band, the final track
Born But Buried, I Can See The Light is exactly where to turn. The song is relentless from start to finish, excellent gutturals, the typical melo-death riffs (moreso towards the end), and though the band flawlessly goes through several tempo changes, the transitions are seamless, a rarity since often times several time changes per song can irritate the piss out of me.
I'll confess that I heard this album before I heard their first, and I'll also confess that its
DEFINITELY a good thing, because in my opinion this blows An Anatomy Of The Beast out of the water, and that's saying something, because An Anatomy Of The Beast kicks a
ss. This is what happens when you have precise and
memorable riffs mixed with blast beats, gutturals and even an acoustic interlude (A Keen) thrown in for good measure. It's a formula for success, and Intestine Baalismseem to be mathematicians, and no, that's not me stereotyping Asians (though it's true, come on, they're good at math).
Pros- Perfect mix of melody and brutality
The perfect length at 42 minutes
Totally badass cover
Cons- You cant hear them soon enough
As you can tell, the cons are minimal (I'm hilarious. You laughed, face it). This album is a must pick up, that of course is me making the assumption that you can find it, which well, you might have some trouble with. Their site has a hotmail address you can email for instructions on ordering the album, but it also hasn't been updated since January 04, so it's sketchy. Happy hunting, my fellow Sputniks.
Final Verdict
8/10
It seriously is that good
Intestine Baalism are:
Seiji Kakuzaki - Guitar, Vocals
Jiro Ito - Guitar
Hisao Hashimoto - Drums
Kenji Minagawa - Bass
Official site: http://intestinebaalism.com/index_e.htm
