I feel that it is bad practice to start every review off with an explanation of how unfit I am to review the selection in question, but in the interest of full disclosure, I am not all that well versed in metal. Of course, I have listened to Metallica’s “…and Justice for All” album a great many times, and I still regularly put on Pantera’s “Vulgar Display of Power”, but to a real metalhead this is probably weak sauce.
I do know, however, that a growing body needs vitamins and minerals. I think it is safe to assume that a dying body does as well, and I am certainly not getting any younger. As such, it was with a determined-to-do-myself-some-good air that I began to listen to the Vitamins and Minerals… of DEATH! They have been kind enough to allow me to review their album “I”. I’m not sure if that is I as in “I am”, or “I” as in “the number one in Rome”, but it matters little.
It is really good. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s really damned good. I feel like someone who walked accidentally into a fetish club and found upon leaving that he rather enjoyed himself inside.
The first things I noticed and liked are the guitar sounds and the drumming. And the latex rubber pants. I was wearing the latter, though, they have nothing to do with the album.
The guitar cabinets sound to me to be expertly miced. It’s always possible that I’m being fooled and these sounds actually came from a smallish kidney bean shaped device known as a POD, but I think these sounds are the real deal. A lot of times in metal the guitar sounds are as “dry” as they can be made to be, but these contain to my ear a slight bit of “room”. It sounds to me like someone who knew what they were doing set these up.
It also sounds like they were miced up in a panel-walled basement of someone’s house, which is precisely from whence metal should emanate.
The drum sounds are great, which is key. A teenager’s metal band will have terrible meter and rhythm, thus making the metal unlistenable. This, however, is full-grown metal and the drumming is superb. It’s a tad flashy with the splashy, if you know what I mean (drummers will), but there can be no doubt that whoever is doing it is very good at it.
The only thing keeping me from listening to this record every time I am about to do something that requires me to be very active is the vocals. This is merely a style choice made by the Vitamins and Minerals… of Death!, however. They sound like they were recorded the way they are on purpose. They also sound to me as though they are being sung by someone who is in the process of eating a large pile of rocks a handful at a time.
All in all I think that in their proper genre, which is presumably “Of Death!“, this record is an excellent example.
Check these guys out on their MySpace page… of death! If you like the style, you will like the songs.
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