Norway's Virus want to create a sort of free-form heaviness that
changes your perception of what to expect from the hardcore metal genre
in an effort to promote versatility and variation. What they ended up
with is a lite version of adrenaline-fueled pound and screech with a
cross between Mike Patton and Serj Tankian on vocals. Which ultimately
means sometimes the vocals are on key, sometimes nowhere near, and it
sounds like that may or may not have been a conscious choice; but the
music is stable, engaging even, with sadly very little change from one
track to the next. Virus try hard to make the songs blend together into
a congruous whole, with tracks fading into each other and combining
elements, but the music is so derivative and the vocal performances
often so horrendous that it's hard to find anything really to latch on
to. Incidentally, where other import artists have stayed with their
native tongue or tried at some deeper meaning in the translation, Virus
emote through lyrics that are almost incomprehensible, with talk of
screaming insects and "I went smilingly like a classic obsession"
topping the list of sub par nonsense. This, unfortunately, also means
that they are not all that different from any other Norwegian hardcore
band that tries its cards on this side of the pond. Carheart
is a valiant effort, though, and Virus are pouring their hearts all
over this record. It just doesn't amount to much that hasn't been tried
here before.
samples:
You'd be hard pushed to realise that samples from classical music form
the core of the second Illuminati EP, as they've mostly been utterly
distorted and pulverised beyond recognition. A middle aged electrician
commented that this reminded him of Soft Machine which is odd because
Dave Clarkson of Illuminati and Planetsounds is a big fan of theirs,
but I'd never have thought it was something that sounded similar. When
I mentioned the comparison to Dave he asked if it was the third track,
"Glass Box Trap" which chucks a melodic keyboard jitter over thrumming
double drone backbone, and a nasal voice muttering disgruntled and
nebulous. If I was going to fling comparisons at Illuminati though I'd
have to mention Throbbing Gristle, particularly "DOA," but I think I
did that with the first EP. This one has the same picture on the cover,
but inverted to negative and in some ways this a darker and more
menacing trip. A deep singular pulse beat opens the strange door onto a
microscope resolution for "Midget Germs" which vibrate ominously in
hell spawned misery. Feedback screams and muffled moans punctuate this
tortured cancerous eyeball injection. The poor germs don't stand a
chance when "Argenteum Atavism" squirts beatnoise bleach all over them.
Crunching along in hectic overloaded abandon, this is what it might
sound like if Aphex Twin tried to put one over on Non. Just as the
melody creeps in one final crash collapses into semi-ambient bleepscape
gurgling. The fourth and final track swings "The Strange Door" shut and
desperate knocking can be heard from outside as the germs shut outside
slowly fizzle to their demise, and a new dawn of lush angelic keyboard
bursts across the blackened sky. Distant thunder rumbles.
