| CD REVIEW Criminal |
 |
|
Band: Criminal Shit man, it’s been almost 3 ½ years since this Chilean/British collaboration released their previous album, the critically acclaimed Sicario (which for the band was a return to their Thrash/Death roots after their more BritPunk influenced/geared 2004 No Gods, No Masters – in my book still one of the best things the band ever made, but then that’s a question of personal taste). One of the event that may have delayed the release of a new album, is probably the fact that the band’s been havin’ some trouble with its bass player. As you may remember (otherwise re-read the review I did for Sicario, posted 08/09/2009) the band’s bassist from their Chilean days, Juan Cueto, had re-joined the band in the UK (where singer/ guitarist Anton Reisenegger and guitarist Rodrigo Contreras had relocated to)…but that only lasted until 2006. What happened with him after, I have no idea. His position was summarily taken over by Stafford Glover (like drummer Zac O’Neil, of Extreme Noise Terror, also holding tenure with Deinonychus, Tao De Moto, and Massive Hospitalisation), who’d occasionally taken over tasks as bassist before. However, Criminal now had two members whom they had to share with another, quite active act! Makes one wonder what our two Chilean guys had to do to make ends meet, you know! Eventually the bass position was taken over by Danny Biggin of Takoma Star [a young band which blends PopPunk with Classic Rock and Emo came under the attention when hand picked as support for The Stranglers and The Blockheads during 2006. Followed a live acoustic session on local radio, and the release of 6-track EP To This Day (got over a 1,000 plays in the first month of release)and 3-track single Stockholm ( an exclusive track with live versions of two songs off the EP) in late 2007, which then got steady and nice sales through iTunes, Napster and other online download sites, the band being chosen “Unsigned Band Of The Week” on UK national radio station XFM. In between the band got sponsorship and endorsements from ddrum and Dean Guitars, and have seen the venues they play at getting bigger and bigger supporting signed UK acts, as well as playing at festvals both in the UK and Czech Republic. The band’s currently working at a new EP, songs off which are already posted at myspace.com/takomastar], but I ain’t sure when exactly that happened! Another thing that delayed recordings of a new album was the fact that the band was apparently between labels! Getting Biggin in the band would eventually proove to be a very smart move by Criminal, as he happens to have a home studio. Writing sessions started in the Spring of 2008, and even saw Biggin contribute “…a super brutal, straight-ahead metal song…” (quotation from a blog at myspace.com/criminal) to a toal of some 18 tracks the band would eventually prepare and demo for the album! One of those demo songs was eventually posted on October 29, accompanied with the news that the band would be starting the actual recording of the album a couple of days later, still in Danny’s home studio, rather than in an expensive commercial one! Obviously this has allowed the band to spend some more time with the recordings, not having to hurry things to lower recording costs! Well, that counting without O’Neil, who had all of his drums (for 14 songs) recorded in 4 days flat. As Reisenegger puts it in a blog, “We were just sitting there with our jaws dropped, completely in awe of what Zac was doing on his kit,“ and believe you me, when you’ll hear the performance he pulled off when listening to the album, you’ll understand why the boys were so awestruck! Jesus, that guy can bash his drums in the most thunderous way, and still play an appealing melody at the same time! But the rest of the music is quite equally as amazing. Reisenegger puts it the album’s material is quite varied, ranging from really technical stuff with odd time signature to crushing groove monsters, to all-out Death Metal and everything in between! Personally, I’m still too much searching for my breath after the first five listening sessions I gave the album (finding myself being bashed from one wall in the room to the other on the waves of the speedy Death thrash tunes of this great quartet…and liking it, ever só much) to even want to start analyzing the music any deeper! Fact is, the music grips you by the throat from the beginning notes of album opener “21th Century Paranoia” til’ the somewhat disappointing, because fade-out, ending of the record! Check out the band’’s MySpace page to listen to that album opener and the ensuing “Crime And Punishment” (hah, if listening to Criminal is the crime, it could never be a punishment…little joke!!!), and the other songs posted there! I’m sure you’ll agree with me that Criminal is still one of the better bands in their genre! I may not have been so hot about the band’s previous album, but this one (with only 12 tracks on the promo copy we got, so you know the band has something still up their sleeve, right), but this one goes straight for the “Best Albums Of 2009”-list!!! And about that bit “up their sleeve”…the first pressing of Criminal’s new album will come as a limited edition with a bonus, 90-minute DVD including 3 live shows (two from Chile, the other from the band’s appearance at the Up From The Ground festival), and bonus material (hum…perhaps those extra songs we’re missing?)! 98/100 Tony. |