Band:	Lab Eleven
Album:	Exceed The Veil Of Maya
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	June 2010

01. I Become Her Punisher
02. God's Masterpiece
03. Six Pieces
04. Aedes Albopictus
05. Life Under Checkmate
06. Wake Up To Kill
07. The Novice Butcher

Thrash Death metal
Recorded: FP Recording Studio, Italy 2009
Label: SG Records
Total Running Time: 32:19


Metal should be more than savage brutality...

Maybe so, but not in this review. Lab Eleven stand for brutal thrash-injected death metal and.. well, that's pretty much it. Before you chicken out because face-melting metal is too much for you when you're having your period, do know that the band worked for two full years on their ideas. In other words, you can bank on solid songwriting and stellar musicianship.

For whatever dumb reason the album starts off all wrong with some proggy keyboard tune that sounds pretty sweet... if you're a fakir and thus used to getting daggers in your ears. Fortunately the band quickly recovers and sweeps you away on their tidal wave of blustery aggression for the next half an hour. From then on it's sturdy mid-paced Metal with a capital M and a strict no-nonsense policy all the way.

Thumbs up to the ferocious vocal work as well. These are the kind of deep growls and sharp screams that sound so hateful they will rape your happiest childhood memories and leave them weeping on the cold tile floor. Definitely one of the main pillars of the album.

The sole issue here is that Lab Eleven is a potent short-acting drug. Sure this stuff is as contagious as chronic bloody diarrhea. Sure the band might be complexity averse. But the effects are worn-out pretty quickly. For once the relative shortness of the album is actually a good thing.

Exceed The Veil Of Maya is the kind of straightforward release that separates the tough guys from the little boys and/or snobs and/or Tobias Sammet, and only requires some trained neck muscles and not too much brain activity (good news for nine out of ten people reading this review). Legit album for no particular reason.