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 CHARGER
Confessions Of A Man (Mad Enough To Live Amongst Breasts)
2003
CD
Peaceville CDVILEF 100
58:41
I recently witnessed Charger live at the Kerrang
Weekender. I was blown away to say the least, a metal band with
pure atmosphere live - a metal version of Mogwai.
So when this CD appeared for review I was quite excited. Charger
are from Stoke-on-Trent, the home of Discharge
(they also copy their logo for their name). Although this is their
debut album, there was a mini album called 00 released
on Undergroove.
There are eight tracks here and most are quite long. It begins
with 'Ultra Violet Flyer' which opens with a good deal of feedback
- a good sign. Then suddenly some brutal metal is unleashed and
Tim Machin screeches loudly over some dirty sounding
guitar! As it goes on there's some dark powerful atmospheric slow
parts in the Black Sabbath style. 'God Made Us
In The Image Of His Ass' begins with some dirty sounding distorted
guitar and drumming which sounds a bit like the intro to Discharge's
'Decontrol'. It manages to take the style of eighties apocalyptic
punk and bring it into the future with powerful atmospheric soundscapes.
'Pennies from Soil' has more of that dirty guitar sound which seems
a bit of a trademark with Charger and it's one of the biggest appeals
to me of the band. This is a medium paced grinding song with some
very powerful drums and throat ripping vocals. 'Chide and Harmonize'
is dark and atmospheric from the start, slow heavy doomy guitars
to start with until it turns into some megathrash! It's certainly
intense as it makes its way through different moods and styles especially
towards the end where it has an industrial feel with lots of weird
vocal effects. 'Carbon Wings' is another medium paced exhibition
of power which builds and turns into something quite intense. 'Airtank
Face Pincers' again has an old punk feel to it until it goes into
some doomy metal jamming. The oddly titled '-' is a dark metal instrumental.
It’s full of power and feeling, and it has the intensity of
Mogwai without the slow parts. Finally 'A Ventilation of Cooking
Poultry' has some crazy screeching guitar and vocals. It has a very
powerful middle part like it's going to rip with intensity and it
certainly doesn't fail to deliver! It goes on through many moods
until it turns into some weird industrial ambience. It's certainly
the highlight here.
This is one of the best metal albums I've heard in ages and certainly
one of the most exciting new bands. I hope coming from the UK doesn’t
prove a drawback as they deserve a lot of attention.
JOHN MARSHALL - 24 June 2003
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