Axis Of Advance
Landline
[Catharsis]


Out of the ashes of Sacramentary Abolishment comes Axis of Advance, the new project of vocalist/guitarist Wor, bassist/vocalist Vermin (both ex of S.A.) and new drummer J. Read. Considering just how brilliantly brutal Sacramentary Abolishment were, my expectations for this mCD were running rather high. Well, I'm pleased to report that Axis Of Advance not only met, but exceeded the hopes I had for them. While still continuing along the same lines as the last Sacramentary Abolishment album ("The Distracting Stone"), A.O.A. have managed to gain/add further cohesion to their sound, becoming even more focused than ever before. Maniacal riffs a plenty is the name of the game, all played with a speed and fury seldom seen in today's rather mundane landscape of "extreme" metal - this shit is FAST. And where a lot of other bands might suffer from having song structures this complex, Axis Of Advance are one of the few who can pull it off without the end result sounding like an uneven mishmash. There's actually so much going on here that words just wont do it justice - this has to be heard to be understood, so I won't even attempt to describe the musical chaos this contains. Suffice to say, it's all very well executed, with each instrument somehow managing to both carve it's own path yet still function within the (complex) framework established by the other players. And the vocals...we're talking CAUSTIC. If you thought they were vehement on "The Distracting Stone", you haven't heard *anything* yet. Production is top notch, so this time around the fuckbags at TERRORIZER (who's grasp on extreme metal is about as tenuous as my understanding of the merits and subtleties of Islamic disco music) will have to find something else to complain about. Grab this PRONTO - 3 tracks (two originals plus a brilliant reworking/cover of Sacrifice's "Re-Animation"), 18:39 of a top notch hybrid of black/death/grind/war/extreme metal...


© 1999 chorazaim