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:
Francisco López came onto my radar beginning during his most prolific period, largely the mid-1990s to the present day. Even though his career began earlier, his 1980s period is often forgotten due to these earliest works published in extremely small numbers that have faded into obscurity. This new compilation, however, presents previously unreleased material from his earliest cassette recordings. Within the context of his expansive body of work, what is most striking is how established his aesthetic and style was, even at such a young age.
