Review of Glass Casket - We Are Gathered Here Today

Seeing that I sit in a position where my opinion is greatly magnified, as a reviewer I would like nothing more than to exploit that “power” and rip into this group of Abercrombie clad, short-haired, bleach tipped cargo short wearing bunch of fucking college kids. Seriously here, reading their bios is quite laughable. Only 2 of them seem like they even halfway know their metal. The others seem better off in a pop-punk band or something. Even though the drummer looks like he just walked off the golf course, his ability at what he does shuts me up in a nanosecond. We all know that looks don’t matter, but it’s so much fun to stereotype. It saves time. A butch cut means you just got into metal recently and struck a deal w/ Roadrunner records as a new Hardcore/Metalcore group…usually. How can it be that a group of shorthairs can create what Glass Casket has? How? I thought the talent for metal lied within the hair & amount of tattoos. This goes against all that I’ve learned and believed to be true. This no doubt changes everything.

There was a time when I thought Cryptopsy was an untouchable of sorts; others could try but they wouldn’t make the cut. They held a style that people could marvel at and that was it. In reality however, while they are currently doing who-the-shit-knows-what in their Canadian log cabins, bands are claiming what was once theirs. And after they claim it they pretty much play tether-ball with it. Glass Casket is a band that has grasped the Cryptopsy style, and has apparently done so w/ a certain degree of ease. They’re not exactly the same mind you, but so much of this material reminds me of Whisper Supremacy & …And Then You’ll Beg. This is not you’re typical college hardcore breakdown infested blather. It’s safe to say the bulk of Glass Casket is death metal. The riffing, the layered harmonies, the drumming, the vox…it’s death metal. It’s goofy at times however. “Chew Your Fingers” transforms into a power metal solo, w/ the reverb turned all the way up and everything. Actually, it sounds like it came off a Damn Yankees album. Fucking Nugent-stylie all the way. Possibly an unsuccessful mating of 2 completely different items in one song, but the more I hear it, the more it “fits in”. “In Between The Sheets” is another shocker. Not just surprising; shocking. It drifts into a wide-open wheatfield of acoustics & lofty lead work. Whispers and clean vox complement the somber moment of reflection. It’s not there just for the sake of having a mushy blob of bullshit to change shit up; it’s heartfelt and it’s got feeling and power. But what’s cool is how they bring the grimace right back w/ these huge palm muted chunk chords and put an immediate end to the momma’s boy behavior. Unlike “other” bands who attempt this style and result in total overkill (Between the Buried and Me), Glass Casket put down the steel-toed boot as if to say “alright, enough of that shit”, and bring you back to why you are listening to them in the first place. You don’t want to be taken this far and have the tit taken away from your mouth. They realize that, and I respect them for keeping the main focus on why the listener is this far into the disc.

What this band offers is a professional product of chaotic energy and skill. They are fucking skilled. Quite a bit more than most bands I have reviewed I believe. This is still a relatively fresh style of metal, but most others that are in the same field are 80% farm animal excretion. If you’re gonna try this, you’d better be able to step up to the plate and drive it home and that’s what Glass Casket does. You’ve got an incorporation of a few kinds of styles here that for the most part work very well. 30% Cryptopsy, 30% Red Chord, 20% Meshuggah, 10% average hardcore breakdown band, 5% emotional breaks, 5% Teddy Noogent. I’m usually not a big raver for please-aller combinations and such but this is just one of those discs where it’s done right and to proper levels. This is a superb debut of strength and organization. And I still think they’re in disguises or something… In cognito as the average frat fucker. But when it’s all said and done it’s all about the metal here and this is a band I can see becoming a powerhouse provided they stay together. This disc has been and will be getting play very frequently…I’ll go as far as to say it may be a year-end lister for 2004.

Release Details

Glass Casket

We Are Gathered Here Today

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