Empire – “Empire S/T”
I don’t know much about this band. In fact, I know nothing.
I suppose, for me, that’s true about most things in life- but for this band, it most, emphatically holds true.
I do know their name is Empire. And they have tags on their bandcamp like: death metal, hardcore, Stoughton.
So I know where they’re from and I know that they’re metal orientated. But their facebook page doesn’t seem to exist anymore.
You may, in fact, be breathing- but if you’re not alive on social media. Well, you might as well be dead.
I don’t even know why I checked them out. I do know that I check out bands that are on hot bills with other bands I like. I, usually, check them out, ask the bartender to send them over a drink and when they look- I give a confident glance and a quick nod of the head. I cheer them with my martini and then give them a knowing look that tells them- their fate, or at least a review on a website, that I fear nearly no one reads, will happen.
So, though it may not have happened exactly this way- existentially, it did.
So here’s a review of Empire- a band that combines great, heaping helpings of metal, with some oh-so gloomy doom and stark, industrial passages plus growling hardcore/death vocals. And you get all of this along with an entree and a beverage of your choice- and they exist in a land that straddles both camps of metal and hardcore, adroitly- hardly spilling a drop.
Let’s give these headbanging hounds a listen:
With some earth shaking, speaker rattling, thunderous, monolithic sounds, “From Ash,” comes crashing into our craniums with lethal reverberations. This is not guitar, so much, as mountains being demolished right before your eardrums. This is the sound you hear when they chop your frontal lobe away while you’re getting a lobotomy. This is an instrumental that erupts like a volcano of sound where instruments are a mere, second thought. It’s colossal, it’s majestic and it is grand.
“Lost Souls” starts out with a rock solid, heavy, beat that suggest a dying dinosaur is moving across a barren plain. That heavy beat soon picks up in velocity while venomous vocals emit aggression and bile. The groove builds into a less anchored, but still great chorus about drug addiction, moving from pills to the needle. “Infecting your veins with fucking evil!” The headbanging intensity pounds on in a stark, industrial vibe. This is intense, powerful and concise and a great tune.
“My Empire” starts with an energetic guitar lick answered by some clobbering drums until it revolves into an odd, poly-rhythmic beat with death vocals regurgitating passionate anger upon it. This turns into a more rockin’ beat that suggest Bo Didley sitting in with Slayer. Towards the end the groove is brought down to a slow, doom like, industrial ending. My favorite song on the EP.
“The Beast,” is a corrosive, onslaught of industrial rhythm backing emphatic, gut wrenching vocals of the death metal/hardcore kind. The second half moves more into a more rock like lope while the industrial rhythms grind below. But then we return to the ominous, death and destruction reigned upon our ears in the first part. Which sounds pretty great to me.
“Idiocracy” starts with a chuggin’ rhythm with a lead guitar that feels the need to throw a squealy note in here and there. The music moves along, ponderously and intensely, while the lead vocals bark epiphanies against the void. This song is charging and relentless until the middle part, where it slows and a cold, industrial mood is thrust upon us. But it soon moves towards the original part where guttural vocals spit out disgust and the monument like rhythm holds true and strong. Great song.
So I contacted someone from Empire and they in fact, still do exist!
But then I was drawn to the old question- but how am I certain that I exist?
It caused me great, existential angst until I checked in with my editor, Andy Bang, to see if he could share some thought on the subject with me.
He explained he couldn’t care less if I existed but if my music review for this week didn’t exist on his desk by Saturday, my deadline, then I would wish I was never born.
That was a good enough explanation for me.
And Empire should be more than enough of a great band for you.
(Slimedog)
