I'm on the fence about the new Gwar album, Battle Maximus. Not about whether it's good or not, because it's pretty fucking great, but about whether it's better than Beyond Hell (my favorite) or not. It's definitely up there with Scumdogs and Beyond Hell, that's for damn sure, and the whole thing is such a tremendous blend of 80's style melodic thrash with the punk feel that's always been a cornerstone of Gwar musically...well, let me just say this: Brent "Pustulus Maximus" Purgason is a totally welcomed follow-up following the death of Cory "Flattus Maximus" Smoot. The only meh track is "Falling," but it serves as the closest thing to a legitimately heartfelt tribute to their fallen brother, and it's surprisingly moving in a sense. Plus, it's preceded by three of the best songs Gwar's done in the last decade via "Mr. Perfect," the instrumental title track (which blows away the other Gwar instrumental, "A Short History of the End of the World," which was the best highlight of an otherwise completely mediocre album), and "Triumph of the Pig Children" (considering the quality they've done since War Party dropped in '05, that's saying something about those songs), so it's fine by me. That's not to say that the first chunk of the album isn't great, though: "Madness at the Core of Time" is a great opener (despite the first track technically being "Intro," where Oderus laments the fall of Flattus), "Bloodbath" is sure to go down as one of their heaviest, "Raped at Birth" is hilariously violent in the way that we've all come to expect from the Scumdogs of the Universe, and each song builds upon the last in a way that few Gwar albums (outside of Beyond Hell, where each song was a chapter in the story) have, but it's the 1-2-3 combo of "Mr. Perfect," "Battle Maximus," and "Triumph of the Pig Children" that steal the show here. All in all, I'm giving the album 9/10, with the 1 detracted due to the sudden drop from "Falling" and how finale "Fly Now" doesn't quite pick up the pace (similar, again, to Beyond Hell, where proper closer "Back in Crack" is the worst song on the entire album).
The new Carcass album, Surgical Steel, is pretty damn good, too, and while I love that the innovators of grind and melodic death are back in action, this almost seems more like a release that impersonators Exhumed (whose new album Necrocracy is one of their best) and Impaled (those Portland boys whose side project, Ghoul, is much more popular and pound-for-pound fun than the main group) would drop as another chapter in their worship of Jeff Walker and company. There are a few moments when I could've sworn that the same song was repeating over again due to a few riffs being far too similar to one another, but that's almost a non-issue since, hey, that's the overwhelming majority of death metal (and I love Cannibal Corpse, who've been recording the same style of album since Vile back in 1996). 8/10, and it's great to see these guys get back together solely for the inevitably of a new tour in support of Surgical Steel as I missed them on their "one-time reunion" tour a few years back.
