Published on Sep 17, 2001
It’s no secret that I like heavy metal – I have ever since high
school way back in the mid to late ’80s. And it’s no secret that,
while I might not always agree with the messages a band sends out,
I like thrash/death/speed metal, depending on what particular tag
is being hung on the genre that particular day.
But the more I listen to some of the death metal out there, the
more I begin to think that precious little ground is being broken
by bands around the world. The formula is pretty much the same:
band plays as fast and as loud as they can, band sings about
murder, rape, torture, hatred for Christianity, or any combination
of this list.
Altar, a five-piece act from The Netherlands, does make one step
in the right direction on their latest disc
Red Harvest, but for the most part, the group – vocalist
Edwin Kelder, guitarists Marcel Verdurmen and Richard Ludwig,
bassist Nils Vos and drummer Skoerd Visch (who recently left the
group) – follows in the same patterns as so many other bands I’ve
listened to.
The one thing that strikes me early about this album is that
Visch’s drum work, especially anything in the cymbal department,
either wasn’t being played very strongly (a suspicion I honestly
doubt) or that they weren’t mixed high enough. Without that key
element to the drums – an element which is fixed later in the disc
– Visch’s playing often sounds like so much whack-whack-whack while
the band plays on. The backbone of the group needed to be stronger
on songs like “Sick” and “Spikes And Pain”.
The other thing that sticks out is that, for the most part,
Kelder is a vocalist whom you can understand a lot of the time
without having to resort to the lyric sheet. That being said, it
doesn’t feel like Kelder is challenging himself enough as a
vocalist. He seems to be locked into one particular style of
delivery, and while it works a lot of the time, it just doesn’t
feel like Kelder is discovering his true potential as a
vocalist.
Ironically enough, the track that works the best on
Red Harvest is one which features no vocals at all. “To My
Friends (RIP)” is a track which demonstrates the true musicianship
of Altar – and while I know using the word “musicianship” to
describe a death metal band might be an oxymoron to some people,
Altar shows there’s some real substance to their music. (With five
full-length and one mini-album under their belts, one wonders why
Altar would need to even prove this.)
The bulk of
Red Harvest, though, is a pretty typical death metal album,
filled with venom aimed against God and those who believe in Him.
(It is interesting, though, to hear a song like “The Unbeliever,”
which slams someone who once shared the views of Altar, but have
apparently changed their views after meeting a woman. Lyrically,
this track is pretty engrossing.) If you’re a diehard fan of death
metal, chances are you’ll find plenty to enjoy – but for the casual
listener, it’s pretty much the same anger and hatred we’ve heard
all along.
Oh, this isn’t to say that
Red Harvest is a bad album; it does have some enjoyable
moments, and is a nice way to release the aggression built up over
the course of the day. But Altar doesn’t try to set themselves
apart from the rest of the crowd – and if you don’t try to impress
your own individuality, you tend to get swallowed up by the sea
from whence you came.
2001 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of
Spitzenburg Records / Crash Music, and is used for informational
purposes only.