Artist: Lair of the Minotaur
Label: Southen Lord
Release Date: 9/21/04
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Title: Carnage Artist: Lair of the Minotaur Label: Southen Lord Release Date: 9/21/04 |
Judgment Committee Reviews | Rating |
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3 | ||
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Abyss's Review:
This album kinda snuck up on me. It's a gritty, underproduced album that borrows from all over the spectrum with regard to sound, but a lack of production values prevents it from achieving greatness. Fans of Slayer and Celtic Frost will be able to appreciate the no-nonsense approach that this band incorporates, but the band also maintains a quirkiness that gives them their own identity in the midst of all of their classic metal stylings. This is no easy task.
"One word review: Great." It is problematic for a band to maintain a classic sound without sounding like so many of the bands before them, and Lair of the Minotaur pull it off well. The songs are dynamic in their own way, but it took me a number of listens to realize this. And that's why I think this band has done themselves a real disservice by keeping the production so raw. Some really interesting compositions can easily be overlooked because the tones used in each song are so similar. Carnage makes up for this weakness with genuine ability, but I can't help but think this album could be so much more.Of course, the production might not be entirely the band's fault, as it can hinge on how much money they have to play with in the studio. But while many bands benefit from this sort of sound, and seek it on purpose, I believe this band would benefit from a deeper cauldron of tone.
Production values aside, there is a lot of great stuff on this record, and I look forward to their work in the future. I especially recommend this album to anyone who likes their metal raw, blackened and traditional. Lair of the Minotaur may not be challenging the borders of modern metal, but they do a good job of reminding us why old-school heavy metal got us so excited in the first place. One word review: Great.
Death's Review:
Lair of the Minotaur play post-Venom, post-Celtic Frost, raw, old-school traditional metal. If you get this, you should expect to hear tales of monsters and mythic ancient Greek beasts performed with downtuned, heavy, fuzz-laden guitars, basement style production, punishing drums and vocals that range between deadly death metal screams and parts that sound either like Mille or Tom G. Warrior. Lair of the Minotaur were founded by guitarist/vocalist Steven Rathbone in 2003 in Chicago and their new album, Carnage, comes to us on the Southern Lord label. Fans of punishing, raw traditional metal/pre-death metal like say, Usurper mixed with Deceased mixed with very early Slayer, will really enjoy this. It is violent, hate-filled and undeniably metal. Lots of slow, heavy riffs to bang your head to. I'd love to hear them do something that sounded better overall, and – even though their ungodly rawness are certainly part of the appeal -- perhaps just a little bit of polishing could do wonders for this band. That is for the most part my assessment of Lair of the Minotaur overall.
"It is violent, hate-filled and undeniably metal." Still, I must point out that there is a bit more to the story here. Lair of the Minotaur definitely have a good ten or twelve seriously killer moments on this record – perfect glory days of metal level riffs that are peppered throughout. That's what makes reviewing this record somewhat confounding. There definitely is not anything too original or unique happening here, but there definitely is some inspired metal being played. It’s simple, it sounds low-budget, but it does often kill. Much of it gets boring after a while. But by the time that killer riff comes in for the second time in “The Wolf” just after the 3:00 mark, I’m ready to start breaking things, and there is definitely a lot of potential here to do something well above and beyond the normal run of the mill band. The slow riff from just past 2:00 in track three, "Lion Killer," is also definitely worth something above the norm. So I’ll reserve final "judgment" until the next release. For now, this album has put Lair of the Minotaur on my radar screen; I’ll return to it some, but you’ve really got to be looking for something sicker, dirtier and lesser-known to properly appreciate this.
Hel's Review:
One thing about this album stands out above all else: the production is pure ass. Some of the worst I have heard in ages, as a matter of fact. I've spent days trying to come up with some other aspect to dwell upon, if only for a few sentences, but I've been extremely unsuccessful in doing so. On multiple levels, I feel like I have no clue what this band really sounds like underneath that hefty layer of grime. Listening to this album was a pretty frustrating experience as a result.
"The songs are essentially simple, yet always engaging." But despite this enormous stumbling block, I have to admit I found the album fairly enjoyable anyway. Which is yet another reason the production frustrated me so much. Part stoner, part doom, part death, part thrash, and even with a touch of black, Lair of the Minotaur bends each genre into a sound that is familiar yet somehow uniquely theirs. The pace varies from mid to fast. The songs are essentially simple, yet always engaging. Here is a new band that has come along with something interesting. It is all the more unfortunate that this is unable to shine through.
Whether or not the production choice was intentional (some bands still go for that under produced sound, though I'll never understand why), it fundamentally dragged the album as a whole down. Lair of the Minotaur seems to have some fantastic potential, but this album, without a doubt, did not showcase their talents as it should have. I sincerely hope the next time around they forgo the fuzz, because I would really like to hear the music underneath.
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