BAAL are Japanese. Steely industrial metal is their thing. The title of their latest long-player translates as ‘scene of carnage’ in English. It’s entirely fitting, as over the course of the album’s 10 tracks, they lay waste to subtlety and nicety and charge forth with an incendiary guitar-driven onslaught.
Straight out of the traps, the speakers crackle and burn with a heavy industrial guitar blast, an overloading stuttering riff that’s cranked up way past 11. The snarled vocals, reminiscent of Al Jourgensen sit perfectly halfway beneath the Ministry-inspired grind (think somewhere between ‘Filth Pig’ and ‘Dark Side of the Spoon’).
‘Shurado’ is a ferocious, metallic beast of an album: friendly, relaxing, charming, it isn’t: blazing with ire and burning with nihilism it certainly is. Two-thirds into the set, ‘Schizoid’ elevates the already fever-pitched ferocity up a couple of notches, while ‘The Iron Age’ brings forth total annihilation. Holy hell!
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