Austrian Death Machine needs more than your clothes, your boots and motorcycle.
Ten years after their last album, the project led by Tim Lambesis (vocals/guitar, As I Lay Dying, Born Through Fire) announces the release of Quad Brutal, their fourth album, via Napalm Records.
He is joined by Brandon Short (drums), Cory Walke (guitar/vocals), Mark MacDonald (guitar), as well as other guests throughout the album: vocalists Craig Golias, Ricky Hoover (Ov Sulfur), Dany Lambesis (HELLBØRN) and Rob Bailey, as well as guitarists Angel Vivaldi, Clayton King (Designing Creation), Joey Alarcon (Born Through Fire, Wolves at the Gate) and Dylan Burcombe.
The album opens with No Pain, No Gain, an as motivating as its video clip is clichéd and laughable composition. The jerky riffs and roars skilfully blend to make the track a perfect gym companion between the few samples, leaving the solo to introduce us to the final part that will join Conquer, where vocals diversify once again while the musicians offer us a frantic Metalcore approach. Heady harmonics contrast with the furious basis, then the band return to the bench with Hey Bro Can You Spot Me? a sentence many a sportsman has uttered before, as on the opening of this effective track of continuous moshparts. Judgement Day pays homage to the band’s beloved film cover with a fresh dose of devastating, groove-boosted riffs, and on Everybody Pities the Weak, the band takes their revenge by adding a few dissonant leads under the continuous fire of the vocal parts. On Don’t Be Lazy, the band returns to their motivational roots, with a touch of humor and clichés, another track where a video urges you to lift more and more cast-iron, before moving on to Get Down, where chopped riffs are legion to accompany us in our quest for muscles, and where we also find a few leads and backing vocals. Samples borrowed from Terminator return on Destroy the Machines, where the vocalists take it in turns to complement each other over a fiery rhythm that pays perfect homage to the action phases, as does MeatGrinder, the following track, which places some sharp harmonics in the angry Thrash influences. The album comes to a close with I Never Quit, which once again lets the musicians run riot at full speed, this time incorporating a few crossover elements to give it a unifying touch.
If you don’t know what to dilute your whey with, Austrian Death Machine has the solution with Quad Brutal, an as effective as it cliché album. Just don’t forget the legs when you headbang.
75/100