Originally written by Drew Ailes
I’m going to make this review relatively short and sweet.
Don’t buy this. Even if you’re into noise.
Now, I think Hydrahead is a great label and everything. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to hate them just because every metal hobbyist in the entire world of musical elitism adores any band on their roster, but the fact remains: they release a lot of decent stuff. Our Last Day is…not decent. Toted as somewhat of a final goodbye/sendoff release, it’s actually appears more like a banal attempt to profit off of the cult-like success of a great band.
Yeah, there’s two unreleased Discordance Axis tracks (which, if you’re really into the band, you’ve already heard), and yeah, they’re pretty good. No shock there. After those, comes all gimmicky programmed electronic cover versions performed by an outfit called Cide Projekt. And man, if you thought you never gave a shit about Cide Projekt before, you’ll be astonished at how even less of a shit you’ll give after hearing their take on songs like “Mind Seduction Aftermath” and “Information Sniper”. There’s a few covers by a band called Gate, who I’m pretty sure aren’t the New Zealand outfit consisting of former Dead C member Michael Morley that goes by the same name – otherwise this might be worth getting for namedropping sake. While they’re not electronic covers, they’re uh…death metal sounding covers. Okay, cool, but what the hell is the purpose of covering tech/grind songs? Is there really much you can change or add? Mortalized, of Japan, cover some songs too! And Melt Banana are their usual brand of obnoxious garbage, managing to take a break from touring with Dave Witte and entertaining know-nothing hipsters to record their version of “Ulterior”.
The Merzbow track is a collaboration between the Japanese noisemaker and the band themselves, but I don’t know to what extent either went to in order to work with the other. Unless you’re into Merzbow, you won’t care. The final track is a song from Jon Chang’s new band, Gridlink, which, big fucking surprise, features members of Mortalized and Melt Banana.
This should’ve been a free sampler included in a magazine, or given out after shows. Maybe if the first half was more like the last half, I could recommend this to…virtually nobody. As it is, however, I recommend this to absolutely nobody. Great release, guys. No, seriously. Keep it up. Maybe you could get KnifeHandChop to cover that Tusk album. Or have remixes of fucking Isis songs. Wait. Nevermind. I’m going to make this review relatively short and sweet. Don’t buy this. Even if you’re into noise. Now, I think Hydrahead is a great label and everything. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to hate them just because every metal hobbyist in the entire world of musical elitism adores any band on their roster, but the fact remains: they release a lot of decent stuff. Our Last Day is…not decent. Toted as somewhat of a final goodbye/sendoff release, it’s actually appears more like a banal attempt to profit off of the cult-like success of a great band. Yeah, there’s two unreleased Discordance Axis tracks (which, if you’re really into the band, you’ve already heard), and yeah, they’re pretty good. No shock there. After those, comes all gimmicky programmed electronic cover versions performed by an outfit called Cide Projekt. And man, if you thought you never gave a shit about Cide Projekt before, you’ll be astonished at how even less of a shit you’ll give after hearing their take on songs like “Mind Seduction Aftermath” and “Information Sniper”. There’s a few covers by a band called Gate, who I’m pretty sure aren’t the New Zealand outfit consisting of former Dead C member Michael Morley that goes by the same name – otherwise this might be worth getting for namedropping sake. While they’re not electronic covers, they’re uh…death metal sounding covers. Okay, cool, but what the hell is the purpose of covering tech/grind songs? Is there really much you can change or add? Mortalized, of Japan, cover some songs too! And Melt Banana are their usual brand of obnoxious garbage, managing to take a break from touring with Dave Witte and entertaining know-nothing hipsters to record their version of “Ulterior”. The Merzbow track is a collaboration between the Japanese noisemaker and the band themselves, but I don’t know to what extent either went to in order to work with the other. Unless you’re into Merzbow, you won’t care. The final track is a song from Jon Chang’s new band, Gridlink, which, big fucking surprise, features members of Mortalized and Melt Banana. This should’ve been a free sampler included in a magazine, or given out after shows. Maybe if the first half was more like the last half, I could recommend this to…virtually nobody. As it is, however, I recommend this to absolutely nobody. Great release, guys. No, seriously. Keep it up. Maybe you could get KnifeHandChop to cover that Tusk album. Or have remixes of fucking Isis songs. Wait. Nevermind.
