Review Summary: Never overly technical and never too melodic, Lunatic falls on a middle ground that's barely satisfying to fans of either.
French death metal – and yes I'm including Quebec in this – is a fuc
king behemoth.
Pitbulls In The Nursery are yet another addition to said behemoth, and in spite of having one of the dumbest names ever, they aren't that bad.
Sadly they're not that great either.
To be blunt, Pitbulls In The Nursery is excruciatingly adequate. Not quite as technical as
Martyr, not quite as good as
Gorod, PITN fall somewhere in between.
Lente Agonie, which translates to Slow Agony, a fitting title, follows the growing trend of shi
tty intros in the death metal world, but luckily
Lunatic Factory gets things off to a surprisingly awesome start. The song starts with gripping bass work and complex, machine-like drumming. Then it more or less turns to shi
t, as a wall of off-time dissonance completely knocks the song so far off course that even a bit of Cynic-inspired tomfoolery can save it.
Pitbulls In The Nursery flex their technical muscle in a style akin to the juicebag at the gym, the one lost in the abyss of his own greased up flesh, starting into the mirror with gleeful satisfaction. Sure, he looks big, but the fact is those muscles he's staring at are mostly water. And if it's all filler, who cares?
It's not to say this album is full of filler, in fact it's on the contrary. Other than the intro, there are only two other instances of filler (
Antagony and the dead air at the end of
In My Veins, before the soon to be mentioned hidden track). In place of filler,
Lunatic is chock full of unnecessary flaunting and unnatural song-writing. The album carries along adequately, and while there are no real weak songs, there's also nothing particularly strong. Sure, it's technical, but I'm not impressed. For the most, this is something I've heard before. Apart from some inventive transitions and a ridiculously precise (albeit overly triggered) rhythm section, the album is instrumentally satisfactory. While technical to a reasonable degree, the guitar work is a pretty standard affair and the vocals don't stand out at all; your typical mediocre growl. To be frank, this is pretty formulaic. After the half of the album, you've more or less heard all these guys have to offer.
Nonetheless, Pitbulls In The Nursery show great promise. Though the album is more or less mediocre, some tracks really catch me, if only for a second. The blastbeat to chug-a-lug transitions and precise riffery of
W. Crew mesh tech-era
Death with the ever-popular post-trash chug action, while the bass tapping found in
Impact does an excellent job at putting the bass guitar in the lead roll. Sadly the former, much like
Lunatic Factory, falls back on a calming atmospheric touch that serves more as a distraction than anything.
The band's aim to be cyber-metal is most definitely achieved, and though their technical prowess is certainly outweighed by sub-par song-writing, it makes for an interesting listen. If the band can separate themselves from mechanical instrumentation and learn to focus a little more on song-writing, there is most definitely hope for improvement. I do have to admit that the Psychedelic Middle-Eastern hidden track is kind of cool at first, but it almost instantly becomes ear-rapingly irritating, only to sort of redeem itself as it carries on.
Lunatic is overall an entertaining album, but on the whole it's pretty forgettable. It's always nice to hear a technical album that's not a pain in the a
ss to listen to, though, so points for that.
+ Excellent Drumming
- It's too triggered
+ Technical Instrumentation
- Mediocre song writing
Take
Meshuggah, and
Death and
Cynic and you have
Pitbulls In The Nursery. As formulaic as it may be, there's definitely a glimmer of hope.
