I very, very much dug the early nineties. I loved the old death metal scene, I loved the original grunge sound, and I loved the Nine Inch Nails/Ministry industrial metal movement. I especially dug NiN and Ministry because when I had heard these bands, originally they had come across as shitty “disco with an XtremE edge” that turned me off completely. High school girls in black fishnet shirts and pierced nipples, dancing like they were on opium in black lit clubs that had far more rooms than people to dance in those rooms and it made me want to hit motherfuckers. So when the industrial scene tapped into the thrash sound and ran with it I was almost completely unprepared, but I was delighted.
Of course, now it’s 15 years on and the shine is off. But Tristwood seems to have painted that old ride up for me, and done a pretty fucking good job of it. By adding a huge nod to Zyklon style black and thrash metal, they are giving the old bleep bloop a contemporary edge it needs. The word “relentless” finds its definition here. These songs are fast paced and almost without respite. Which means a lot of your subtle technical musicianship is never going to survive these monsters. When the band does allow for something more subtle, the musicians shine. This is a band that sounds like they can do whatever they want and they want to machine gun you.
I hope you enjoy guitars and mechanical sounding drums, because Tristwood brings them to the exclusion of almost anything else. This is industrial death metal made old school, taking cues directly from Ministry’s fastest compositions and playing them with fury and that black metal key action. Sung in the roar of a pure death metal band, the sound is energetic if slightly anemic. Perhaps to make room for all the mid and high end sounds, the bass is sort of a tale told around the campfire to scare the keyboardist. Almost just a suggestion. That has to lose a point for someone like me.
The bottom line is that we have a well created industrial metal record here, with a powerful drive and some good compositions which is hampered by the lack of bottom end. True mechanical thrash fans are not going to begrudge this act their choice of production, I don’t think. But the general metal public might be more inclined to knock some points off, as I have, for it. But this is a good, fast and brutal album with quality songs and great performances. So I gotta’ recommend it.
