MINUS LIFE – Eternal Urban Megacide

Fear Factory has got competition! That’s the first thought that comes to mind while listening to the opening song “Bodies On Fire” on this Australian lot’s debut CD. There’s the fast-hitting drums and shouted vocals that turn into melodic singing and then back to more abusive singing again.

This is like a great mosaic picture with each song consisting of different little parts, which on their own would be out of place, but when put into their right sections make the songs offered rich beyond belief. The third song, “Edge of Sanity,” is a perfect example. At first the keyboards make you wonder if you have accidently put on one of your sister’s Indie CD’s, but when the singing starts, the first thought is how much like Hetfield Scott sounds, but that style doesn’t last even a full sentence before he’s back into abusing his voice again. By this time, the song has picked up a lot of speed and you end up checking your CD player to see if it’s still the same song playing! You are given a brief breather at the start of the 4th song, but just to make sure that you’re not safe, Scott wails out a couple of screams before belting out the chorus in more traditional Metal style.

This particular beast has many heads, though, with the biggest and most obvious one shouting out Death Metal type vocals. Singer Scott Moss mixes growls, shouts and pleads within his singing, while in the background you get orchestral keyboards softening and tying the otherwise brutal attacks of sound together. Minus Life mix in many different styles of Metal along with their Death Metal backbone, and even take a stab at a ballad with the “Cursed,” but after only 2 verses they decide to also give it the Death Metal treatment… and this is only their debut album!

It will be interesting to see where their future albums will take them. Every song on this CD feels like it’s been carefully handcrafted and a lot of thought and consideration has been put into every section of each song. Every song here could be called “an epic” on the basis of the song structure alone, not to mention the many vocal changes. It’s almost like Minus Life has difficulty deciding which category they want to be in, so they have just ended up throwing it all into the mix and amazingly enough, it works wonders!

The very first spin of the Minus Life’s Eternal Urban Megacide is like watching a horror movie. You couldn’t tell what’s behind the next corner, yet you still kept waiting for the attack you instinctively knew was coming.

Being unpredictable is no small feat these days. Even after several spins, this little gem keeps offering surprises. If Death Metal with modern twist interests you, then you cannot go wrong with Minus Life.