Corporation 187
Perfection in Pain
7.6
At first glance of this band's name, you see..#1: a word. #2: a number. So theoretically, this could qualify them to grace the covers of many modern-day teenie-bopper magazines like "BOP" , "Cosmo Girl!", or the ultimate worthless teen magazine, "Rolling Stone", right along w/ your Sum 41's and your Blink 182's, etc, etc...But Corporation 187 is hardly a band for teenie-boppers. They are a band for sensible metalheads, but not all sensible metalheads..
I have never been a huge fan of the extremely raw, somewhat sloppy, sharp sounds of Slayer. Many will tell you that if you don't like Slayer, then you can't "truly" like metal. I beg to differ. It's not that I hate Slayer or their "all but patented" thrash sound. I have a few of their recent albums and they hit the player from time to time, but their older material never interested me much. But I see tons of bands nowadays that praise Slayer as their #1 influence. Corp. 187 is among them. Even before I heard a morsel of material from them, I read "Swedish Thrash", and I think I'm going to be listening to another Carnal Forge (Isn't that another band name taken from a Carcass song, btw?) with copycat Kerry King soloing. First listen goes like this: There it is..the overly abundant "4/4 not quite a blast beat" drum timing that generally turns me off. But the production is loud, clear, and somewhat raw. Highs can tend to get a little too high at times, depending on what you listen to it on, but generally very good production and mixing. Song #2, "Ghosts of Confusion" caught my attention w/ a tight start'n'stop single-chorded riff.. So far, nothing too extraordinary, but certainly nothing terrible by any means. Now song #3, "Liquid Truth" draws me in w/ something I haven't heard for quite some time now..creative riffing. It gets the head nodding and the grimace forming. And the 4/4 is nowhere to be found, but very tight double-bass blasting takes it's place and sounds much better if you ask me. It's a very solid song w/ emotion and it's probably my favorite on the album. Anything after Liquid Truth up to "Perfection in Pain" isn't really all that memorable. Perfection in Pain is, however. More creative standout riffing is the prime element that gains my respect and repeated listens. And again, it embodies quite a bit more feeling and emotion than anything after it. Not to write the rest of the disc off as a pile of kangaroo shit or anything, but you can basically draw a straight line and the songs will stick to it w/ strict adhesion. The same can be said for vocal performance. It's energetic, rage-inspired thrash vox, w/ little variation. My problem w/ Carnal Forge and other Swedish thrash-mates is that my attention usually cannot be captured for the entire disc. For the most part, I think it's repetitive and songs don't stray too far from the previously mentioned annoying timing. Corp. 187 stick to your basic theory of thrashativity, but there are some displays of quality guitar riffing that constitute a few gems on here which I find myself going back to quite a bit. If you find straight Swedish Thrash in your player more than anything else, I am positive you'll devour this w/ more enthusiasm than the Amish at Old Country Buffet. But primarily speaking as a death fan, I can't say this will still be in rotation a few months from now.
