Just in case it isn’t obvious, Austrian Death Machine is a spoof side project metal band formed by Tim “As I Lay Dying” Lambesis, and Total Brutal is an album of thrash metal tropes supporting songs based on the greatest hits from the cinematic career of the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger, supposedly voiced by the man himself.
I’ll bet that thought raised a smile, didn’t it? So will Total Brutal, though probably not much more than that; rare is the comedy band that makes an album of genuine hilarity, and Austrian Death Machine have not produced ROFLMAO material by any means. The inter-track monologues from Ahhhnold are a bit strained, to say the least, but the bellowed lyrics and song-titles (“Get To The Choppa”, “You Have Just Been Erased”, “Screw You (Benny)”) are good for a few chuckles.
Once we get past the novelty theme, Total Brutal is just a straight-up metal album, overemphasising the stock clichés which - overused as they may be - are the ones that necks snapping and hair windmilling in mosh-pits the world over. Palm-muted chords and utterly over-the-top fretboard-shredder solos are the order of the day, alongside runaway train rhythm sections and Ahhhnold’s roaring vocals. And when I say those solos - guest appearances from various axe-men of note on the modern metal scene - are over-the-top, you’d better believe it; pinch harmonics, notes so high the neighbourhood dogs howl along in sympathy, and more notes per second than your average Stasi department.
Austrian Death Machine is many things. Firstly it’s a project that puts the lie to the po-faced stereotype of metal as a genre unable to laugh at itself - oh sure, those people exist, but they’re usually(and quite unwittingly) the funniest ones of all. Secondly, for the cultural philosophers among you, Total Brutal can be treated a kind of meta-post-modernist text, mocking and subverting the public image of an actor already notorious for appearing in movies that themselves hinge on post-modernist concepts.
Ahem. Excuse me.
What Austrian Death Machine isn’t is a long-term prospect. With most “high concept” projects of this type, the moment the idea has been described its magic starts to decay, and the core joke of Total Brutal is wearing thin by the time you’re half-way through this album. And that’s with a fresh run at the best puns and gags; a second pass would be nothing short of embarrassing.
But as a one-off Austrian Death Machine are a passable chuckle, as well as being a tongue-in-cheek celebration of thrash metal’s greatest hooks. Whether it’ll be enticing enough to get many folk to shell out hard cash for Total Brutal remains to be seen (and I wouldn’t like to bet on it), but it’s pretty much guaranteed to be one of those albums that gets traded around between every gang of teenage metalheads on the planet. Cold comfort for the guys in the accounts department, perhaps, but still an achievement.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Austrian Death Machine, humour, metal, spoof, thrash, Total Brutal
