ALBUM REVIEW: Car Bomb, "Mordial"

By: Eeli Helin

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 27/09/19

Label: Independent | 

Holy Roar Records

”Mordial” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Start

2. Fade Out

3. Vague Skies

4. Scattered Sprites

5. Dissect Yourself

6. Xoxoy

7. Hela

8. Blackened Battery

9. Mordial

10. Eyecide

11. Antipatterns

12. Naked Fuse

The Review:

If you are one of those people who went their way to declare the new Car Bomb album "Mordial" as the album of the year as soon as it was announced before hearing a single note, and want to stick to that notion without considering another side to it, I'd advice you not to read this review any further. Said album was released on September 27th to a wide acclaim, and the previous statements flew very broadly and high. Even though I got the album a month in advance, scribing a review took a while since after the first listen, I honestly didn't remember or even want to replay it. Given my expectations were gigantic, as their previous album "Meta" is simply one of the greatest records ever written, I still didn't even consider the possibility to be put off completely the way I was. Not to be overwhelmingly negative, after many, many listens, I can say "Mordial" is a good album, but that's about it.

Car Bomb's output has refined and evolved over the years, apparently hitting their peak with the anterior album, this newest one falling somewhere in the middle. "Mordial" is the kind of record that explores what has fallen through the cracks on the previous albums, and it thrives in just that. There's plenty of material that momentarily brings out the old giggling fanboy in me, but in its entirety, the album feels bland and flat. I mentioned that after the first listen I didn't feel the need to get back to it, and that is what underlines the opinion I have about it for the time being.

The customary, brain-melting and comprehension-meddling rhythms and weird effects dominate the overall scapes of "Mordial" exactly in a way most people were expecting them to do. While tracks like "Fade Out", "Vague Skies" and "Antipatterns" push the boundaries of what can be deemed rhythmical, at the same time they lack adhesiveness. It might sound stupid to say the twists and turns are hard to follow when the band in question is what it is, but few steadier and more digestable parts could've made a huge difference. You know, stuff that you can nod to. The integral chaotic and nonsensical aspect to the band is present constantly, but also feels too controlled this time around. Granted, the band's sound is deliberately mechanical, but that doesn't mean that the human touch should be left out completely. The atmosphere on "Mordial" is suffocated and more unnatural than before, which on it's part surely affects the taste it leaves behind it.

Not so surprisingly, the best moments on the album are those you didn't expect at all. Such things would be the clean guitars in the title track, the black metal-ish tremolo picking/ double kick section in "Eyecide", and the random Metallica influences on "Blackened Battery" for example. "Dissect Yourself", "Xoxoy", and "Naked Fuse" express the most "basic" side of the band, if you can call it that, but also work wonderfully each time. I'm aware of the contradictions I'm making here, but that's just to make my point clearer. There's better and worse sides to everything, but sadly the latter seems to stick with me when talking about this album. I’m also pretty surprised how ”Meshuggah” they went this time. Surely that band has had a huge effect on what Car Bomb is doing, but it’s a bit sad the lines can be drawn so directly to that one particular source of influence this time.

There's also a lot of recycled riffs and rhythms, which also goes to give that "between the cracks" feel to "Mordial". I don't doubt that people enjoy this album, but it feels that its place is somewhere in the middle and between everything. Opinions are prone to change, and I don't feel the need to state things definitively as I might be on the other end of the spectrum a year from now, but currently I feel that Car Bomb didn't reach the standard they ever so eloquently set for themselves with their past doings. 

”Mordial” is available HERE

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Car Bomb - "Meta"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 28/10/2016

Label: Independent

It is rare to hear heavy music that sounds genuinely original in 2016.  Imagine Will Haven playing Meshuggah and you get a strong approximation of the mathematical rage on display here.

“Meta” CD//DD track listing:

1. From The Dust Of This Planet
2. Secrets Within
3. Nonagon
4. Gratitude
5. Constant Sleep
6. The Oppressor
7. Black Blood
8. Sets
9. Cenotaph
10. Lights Out
11. Infinite Sun

The Review:

When listening to Car Bomb’s new album, “Meta”, it is often hard to comprehend that this music has been played by human beings. The reality that this record was played by four guys from Long Island seems less plausible than the possibility it is the product of a group of psychotic malfunctioning robots with time-distortion capabilities. 

From the crushing opening of “From The Dust Of This Planet” to the parting shot of “Infinite Sun”, “Meta” is a whirlwind onslaught of unpredictable machine gun chuggery, insane octopus drumming and sharp detours into warped, melodic worlds. Imagine Will Haven playing Meshuggah and you get a strong approximation of the mathematical rage on display here.

Whilst insanely complicated, Car Bomb manage to avoid sounding clinical. Everything is played with an unhinged energy and intensity that adds an element of chaos and human fallibility to their music. This separates them from bands that place technique above all else and sound like a soulless guitar shop/drum clinic performance.

“Gratitude” may be the surprise highlight of the record and is the closest thing here to a traditional song, albeit one smashed to pieces and roughly reassembled into a fractured reflection of its former self. This track sees the band bring their melodic side to the fore while still incorporating their trademark piledriver riffage. Passages of intricate math-rock in the vein of Minus The Bear are interrupted by outbursts of violent distortion before giving way to a sky-scraping chorus reminiscent of Deftones and Torche. There is a disorienting woozy feel as tempos and pitches shift, like listening to a record at an ever-shifting speed while it melts in the sun.

It is rare to hear heavy music that sounds genuinely original in 2016. Although it feels like there are some obvious influences on Car Bomb’s sound, the way they bring all of the individual elements together in their unique style makes “Meta” sound like an alien transmission from another dimension. Wherever this noise is coming from, I want to go there right now.

“Meta” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Car Bomb - 'w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w' (Album Review)

By: Aaron Pickford

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 25/09/2012

Label: Independent

w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w is almost bereft of common parameters, such as power chords, instead it is structured around intricate alternative picking with almost cyberdyne robotic precision and poly rhythmic flair.  Such is the technical dexterity of the band, Car Bomb will leave you confused and in awe in equal measure.  It is as if the band have hard wired themselves into your cerebral cortex, and are intend on fucking with the higher functions of your nervous system

‘w^w^^w^w’ CD//DD//LP Track Listing

1) The Sentinel (03:18)

2) Auto-named (00:49)

3) Finish It (02:34)

4) Lower The Blade (04:25)

5) Garrucha (05:42)

6) Third Revelation (04:22)

7) Recursive Patterns (03:12)

8) Spirit Of Poison (05:40)

9) Magic Bullet (05:38)

10) Crud (04:05)

11) This Will Do The Job (05:39)

12) The Seconds (04:32)

Car Bomb is:

Michael Dafferner | Vocals
Elliot Hoffman | Drums
Greg Kubacki | Guitars
Jon Modell | Bass

The Review

It takes a group of precocious individuals to be able to produce a record such as this, Car Bomb the band, is just that, an incendiary device which is triggered to devastate and w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w does just that, from the outset, this record pulverises.  Tight, intricate riffs with the ferocity and stopping power of a Browning M2 .50 calibre machine.  This is Car Bombs 'Ma Deuce', with a cyclic rate of riffs hurtling at you at 800 rounds per minute and at 1,200 rpm, the music we have here is designed to cause maximum damage.  The synchronised music bears the firepower to penetrate steel over an inch thick, so it is advisable to take every precaution necessary to ensure you're own safety. This is a weaponised killing machine.

Car Bomb have created a record of precision, accuracy and immense stopping power.  Indeed w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w is as dynamic and it is unyielding.  Although I am certain that what you hear is in fact the musicians playing their instruments, the drums have that triggered feel to them.  Elliot Hoffman, does indeed possess a Drumkit from Hell.  The arsenal of mechanised drums are ferocious and the measure of the intelligently crafted riffs.  It is unrelenting chaos with the possibility of uncontrollable hemorrhaging being one of the many consequences of this record's power.  Those people with hemophilia approach this record with caution and beware of chromatic death.  Throughout the record the guitars are frenetic with technical polyrhymic riffing, accentuated with descending pick scrapes, slides and pinch harmonics incorporated to excellent affect.  These are just some of the startling features of this seemingly ambidextrous or adroit virtuosic band. 

w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w is almost bereft of common parameters, such as power chords, instead it is structured around intricate alternative picking with almost cyberdyne robotic precision and poly rhythmic flair.  Such is the technical dexterity of the band, Car Bomb will leave you confused and in awe in equal measure.  It is as if the band have hard wired themselves into your cerebral cortex, and are intend on fucking with the higher functions of your nervous system.  Invoking involuntary muscle activity and turning us on to the learning's of Car Bomb and the language of w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w . 

Through all the apparent chaos, everything seems ordered within the context of the record, in the sense that within all the oscillating dynamics of the music, there is a resistor of some sort, wired into this mechanised beast in order to self regulate the chaos before it derails itself.  It is as if Car Bomb is sticking to a set of rules or principles, an algorithm if you wil,l a finite set of unambiguous instructions performed in a prescribed sequence.  Except in the case of Car Bomb there methodology is for the music to be that intricate prescribed sequence. 

The simple facts of this record are that within it's multi faceted formula lies unparalleled jaw dropping ability.  In fact with musicianship this amazing, the future of this band has no boundaries or limits. For me w^w^^w^w must rank among the year's most intense and uncompromising records.  Which is a testament to the band's decision to single handedly oversee every aspect of this record's gestation and do it on their own terms.  This record is outstanding, and to me it is a 10/10 record.  Absolutely incredible.  Buy this record!

You can buy a DD of w​^​w​^​^​w​^​w here and CD/Vinyl here.

FFO: Meshuggah, Gojira, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Locust

Band info: Official Bandcamp Facebook