END OF LEVEL BOSS
Inside the Difference Engine
(Exile On Mainstream)

ISOLE
Bliss of Solitude
(Napalm)

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE
& THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O
Nam Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo
(Ace Fu)

O'DEATH
Head Home
(Ernest Jenning)

TRAP THEM
Seance Prime
(Deathwish)

DYSRHYTHMIA/ROTHKO
Fractures 

(Acerbic Noise Development)

THE FIRE THE FLOOD
Truth Seekers

(No Sleep)

MORE REVIEWS

Trap Them's previous release Cunt Heir to the Throne, which was unleashed by Trash Art Records, made many Best of 2007 lists. Assuming this new five-song EP follows the same pattern of that lauded recording (haven't had the pleasure of checking it out), I'd be surprised if Séance Prime receives the same honors. Taking into consideration that Séance Prime is only an EP; it is indeed quite the potent recording, but beyond its high-grain aggressiveness, its generic brutality and its hardcore meets Entombed's guitar sound it's hardly outstanding. At least surely, not outstanding enough to take top positions in year's best of lists. But hey, I am not part of any panel's of metal site's cherry pickers, so who knows?

My commonplace negativism aside; Trap Them's latest recording is solid as a fucking rock hardcore metal. Notice that I am not saying metalcore, such tag does not apply here. At a few levels their sound reminds me of Canada's excellent Cursed, whose work I've seen receive equal shares of ass kissing and put downs. Based around the dirty Gothenburg guitar sound that Entombed and a few others honed and milked so well during the last two decade, the current two piece of vocalist Brian Vincet Izzi and guitarist Ryan John McKenney have been wise enough to take up the services of Kurt Ballow and his God City Studios. The resulting sound is blistering and corrosive; the perfect match to McKenney's live, raw and in your face vocal assault and Izzi's no-frills guitar approach. For the most part Séance Prime is quite standard; the first three songs are straight up hardcore numbers with a decent dose of metal for fair balance; which is the reason why I am so surprised their previous album made so many Best of lists; it's good, very good indeed, it’s just hard to pick apart from the herd. Fourth track "The Iconflict" is a different matter though; a morphing mammoth of a song that evolves from a stranded pace and that makes the best of the duo's abilities for making left of center scorchers. I am assuming Trap Them's previous releases made good use of these attributes, in which case it makes total sense it made plenty of Best of lists.

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