Condemned to Suffer

This New York-based quintet bills itself as a crossover act bridging death metal and hardcore. And that's not a bad description, really — there are guitar solos, but they're jagged and atonal rather than the usual Wagnerian metal fare; the tempos are generally brisk, but they slow down to a chugging dirge tempo once in a while. And the vocals are just what you'd expect: hoarse screaming without the slightest hint of melodic variation. And therein lies the problem: when you're not delivering tunes, you need some other way of keeping the music interesting, and All Out War doesn't entirely succeed at that. Even if you could understand the lyrics, they wouldn't help — they're a turgid porridge of apocalyptic political pronouncements ("War machines spring to life," "Leaders breathe their final breath/Drowning in their own oppression") and slightly more unusual religious commentary ("Blessed are those who deny the beast," "The human race betrayed by their prophets/The innocent condemned by their faith"). Critic Robert Christgau once described Hüsker Dü's first album as mood music, just for a different kind of mood. The same description would apply here: All Out War's latest effort is a solid celebration of a single mood — out-of-control rage — and if that's the mood you're after, it will serve your purposes very nicely. As a musical experience it leaves something to be desired, but as therapy it's not bad at all.