Metal Storm logo
Butcher's Block - Gutless review



Reviewer:
6.9
Band: Butcher's Block
Album: Gutless
Release date: 2007


01. Obey
02. For Salem
03. Gutless
04. Times Of War

I'm pretty happy when something coming from Finland does not present itself with cheesy keyboards, high-pitched vocals, and a trail of obvious personal and psychological issues more likely to be found in the new edition of Cosmopolitan than in a metal band. Stereotypes being unfortunately hard to overcome, this is what I expect every time I hear "Finland" and right after "metal". Good thing that, on their first demo, Butcher's Block have more to offer than that, in terms of testosterone and brutal music.

The band members present their music as "the bastard child of Exodus and Sepultura", which is, for once, quite an accurate auto-description. To this I would add that I also hear Slayer, Entombed and Carnal Forge in the four songs of this demo. Yep, you guessed right: this is dirty, groovy thrash, whose sole intention is to pound you down lifeless. The guitars are relentless, delivering tons of chugga-chugga riffs and melodic hooks, the drumming is intense and the vocals make me think of a drunk lumberjack (he's ok) trying to scare a polar bear to death. Brutal, and highly enjoyable, despite a few minor flaws.

The sound is the main shortcoming of this demo. It is altogether a bit blurred and the vocals and cymbals are mixed too much in the front. The consequence is that you can't hear the guitars and the bass during the most "intense" passages. That's a shame, since the guitar work is very good on the rest of the demo.

The songwriting is pretty good, with lots of memorable moments and insane mosh-inducing groovy parts, but it sometimes tends to sound a bit too much like the bands listed above. I'm not sure this is a real problem though, as the band's purpose is clearly not to reinvent thrash metal. The point is to play metal for fun. From this point of view, this Gutless demo is a good achievement.

"Butcher's Block rocks my hairy anus!" (that's what they say on the promo sheet, I had to copy this highly philosophical sentence)


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 6
Production: 6

Written by Deadsoulman | 10.10.2007





Hits total: 1973 | This month: 2