In the continuing Victory experiment to put out “all sorts of wacky music,” we are now presented with MINUS, an incredibly intense modern hardcore band from Sweeden. These guys sound a ton like REFUSED, right down to the odd electronica cues, semi-radical lyrics, and bone crushing guitar licks. The bass continually makes it feel like some wall is crumbling upon you, and the vocals shift between serene spoken word, and pupil dilating screams. After listening to this a few times, I really don’t know what the heck to think. For the most part, it’s pretty moving, and certainly an experience in intricate musical song structures, but most of time, it sounds like pure, unadultered noise. If i’m not in the right mood, I’ll get through about four songs before the voices in my head begin to tell me that they are getting fried by the sonic fury. The album’s strong point is definitely the last four songs where the vocals are more melodic and listenable – something this band should certainly stick with. The screaming doesn’t do anything at all for me with these guys as it is of a frequency that dogs usually hear at. I’m certainly impressed with the guitar work, especially on the opening song, “Chimera,” and track 9, “Denver.” There are some odd moments where the music just goes to grindlike hyper speed and then slips back into a more tolerable mid-pace. These are the times when I feel frustrated with the lack of consistency in “Jesus Christ Bobby,” as more and more, this band seems to work off of split personalites. If you dug REFUSED (and I didn’t flock to them like most did, but still thought they were doing some neat stuff), this is certainly worth checking out, but just remember to keep some aspirin handy. Note: The album title, a reference to a character from the FOX tv show, KING OF HILL seems to have no bearing on the rest of the album…this has kept me up at night.

Victory

www.victoryrecords.com