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Puppet Of Destruction

"Never judge a book by its cover." What a cliche! Well, this album's packaging is graphically pleasing to the eye, but . . . The meaning behind that cliche insinuates that the music inside must not be as good. But let's concentrate on the outside first. While it is pleasing to the eye, the packaging emits a rip-off warning signal. First of all, the front cover depicting a jester/skeleton/puppet is reminiscent of Bruce Dickinson's latest cd. Second thing of notice are the eerie similarities of the back cover to that of Plastic Planet by g//z/r (Geezer), right down to the way the track numbers are arranged and laid out. Next, we have the band members' x-rays inside the leaflet, not much unlike the cover of Smash by Offspring. Are all of these unoriginal trappings merely coincidence? I doubt it. "But, hey! Is there music on this disc?" Oh, yeah. The vocals kind of make you cringe, like someone running their fingers down a chalkboard. The production is nice and clean, everything is mixed well, and the song structures are decent while not necessarily unique. The music itself is in the Iron Maiden/Sacred Warrior/'80's metal vein. The beginning guitar riff on "Crosshope" sounds an awful lot like the opening riff on Mortification's "Dark Allusions," the last song on their Blood World CD. Opener "Never" addresses selling out (hmm . . . have you ever heard of any other artists touching on this subject? Me, too!) It also includes a classic metal guitar solo (hmm . . . have you ever heard any other solos like this? Me, too!) The snare sound throughout is rather tinny, but the bass drums "pump up the jams." A great example of this snare sound can be heard at the end of album closer "Charged/Power", with its played-in-a-tin-box racket. The bass is distinct in the mix, and has a decent low-end. The guitars are crunchy-stuff. So, there are a few positives in an otherwise bleak review. The moral of the story is that, if I had to, I would purchase the band's first record, Symphonic Extremities, instead of this one. It just doesn't quite hold up to the standards set by today's metal monsters: Pantera, Tourniquet, or Metallica. For a taste of what I mean, check out issue 71's HM sampler cd. [Rowe Productions/ Chad Olson]