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Everything
works in this debut album from Joplin, MO’s sickest
quartet Krom. The boys literally hit the ground
running like a desperate Usain Bolt in the chase for the
world’s last steroid supply and don’t let up for one
second. In the length of fourteen cuts, Krom don’t even
drag their feet one second, not even in the last couple
of tracks, which are the least poignant but still manage
to cram enough energy to power Webb City and a handful
of reusable quality riffs. But the best things first…
Chaotic Evil
is the sound of a hungry bunch. If Krom try to cover several
bases, they do so, not because of blind ambition but because
they have dominated the styles. Economically, Krom dish out
fourteen cuts in a little over half an hour. Typically, serving
up crusty hardcore punk platters with hefty helps of metal and
occasionally offering up more standard heavy metal fare with a D
beat influence. As it goes with bands that straddle several
lines, talking about styles is in the ear of the beholder. The
tunes rock though. We can obviate the last two; here are twelve
cuts of highly abrasive compact music.
Standouts
include opener “Reacharound Rambo”, with its midtempo open notes
and its thrashy crossover rowdiness that’s established once we
are past the twenty-second mark. If your thrash metal revivalist
band doesn’t sound this big is because Krom has James ‘Tower of
Power’ Hiser at the mike, a dude that barks and growls like a
coked up Tom G Warrior. Plus the music is hefty and the
recording is very organic which alone manages to smash every
other Municipal Waste worshiping combo in volume and heaviness.
The guitars
of Ritchie Randall got lucky with the sound; his mix of speed
and groove works wonders on the enthusiastic cover of Celtic
Frost’s “Into the Crypts of Rays” and on what may be the best
cut of the bunch; “Inherit the Wasteland”. The latter boasts the
best Krom has to offer; grinding moments of ear blistering speed
and grooves deep enough to hook the unhookable, to whiplash the
un-whiplashable. I know, that word doesn’t exist, but the word
‘promising’ falls short. And while the last two songs are not
total duds, neither serves to maintain the momentum raised by
that last riff on “Inherit the Wasteland”. Regardless, Chaotic
Evil is quite the auspicious debut.
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