REVIEW- AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE- Total Brutal

AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE- Total Brutal (Metal Blade)

So often metal tends to take itsself way too seriously, so when album this fun comes along, it's a blast. As I Lay Dying's Tim Lambesis is the brains behind this project, which conjours up metal as if it were made by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Implementing some of his more memorable lines from his many action movies as song titles, ADM pushes the Arnold as metalhead theme to levels of rediculousness, drawing many chuckles and a few groans along the way. The tunes are thrashy, a tad generic at times yet full of energy and no doubt they had a ton of fun in the studio creating them. Hard to pick a favorite, though Get to the Choppa, Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers, and the Terminator inspired I am a Cybernetic Organism, Living Tissue Over (Metal) Endoskeleton are among the catchier tunes. In an era where a cartoon band has the best selling death metal album in Billboard history, it shouldn't be a surprise that ADM has come along. I will say though that Vancouver's Flaming Death Crucifixion Symphony Number 9 not only did the Arnold Metal thing first, they do it better. Still, this is a solid album well worth a few spins.