Eden Beast - Passivity Causes Genocide

I found these guys via Amputated Vein Records (the label on which this album was released). These Italian death grind killers have gotten loads of positive feedback amongst the underground community. The one thing that puzzles me is that they’ve pretty much just vanished into thin air! Their official website is their Myspace profile, which they haven’t posted a single update in years, but the last time they logged in wasn’t that long ago, so at least there’s someone checking up on the profile. This seems to be the case with a lot of the Amputated Vein bands; they release a single album off the label, play a couple of shows, then vanish. It’s kind of frustrating especially when it’s a band that you really like! But that aside, let’s take a look at this beast (pun intended).

The guitarist and the bassist seem to be the two main members of the band. They both have the most complex and pronounced parts in the music, which generally hints that they’re the ones that write the music. Their bassist is actually a lot better than most of the underground brutal metal bassists I’ve heard. He’s one of those bassists that like to follow along and harmonize with the guitar, which often times sounds pretty cool. He has some really cool solo riffs that he pulls off like in the beginning of “Uprooted System”. Honestly, I don’t really think the drummer is all that special; he’s perfect for the style of music, but doesn’t really speak out to me as being an outstanding drummer.

Obviously they’ve chosen the sci-fi/extraterrestrial life theme. You can easily tell this because of the lyrics and the world famous radio interview of the former Area-51 employee that they use in the intro and the outro. The whole sci-fi theme is really starting to become a thing among bands these days, most notably with bands like Obscura, The Faceless, Origin, Decrepit Birth, and Augury.

Their vocalist does the most extreme pig squeal I’ve ever heard. The thing that makes it sound unique is that he has his mouth right against the microphone and has his hands cupped over it for an echo that eventually creates distortion within the amplifier. Let me just say that there is NO way that you could possibly make out ANYTHING that he’s saying, don’t try to act cool by saying you can understand him, because I know you can’t, and you’re not supposed to be able to either.

Italy is currently home to other metal masters such as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Lacuna Coil, Dark Lunacy, Forgotten Tomb, Raintime, and Vomit the Soul. In fact, Italy has pretty much been the music capital of the world since the era of classical music! It may not seem like that to us Americans, but Italy actually has literally every type of music you can name spewing out of its citizens. They have been known as the most musically diverse country for the past few hundred years. This album is actually very impressive, quite a step up from the majority of underground brutal music out there, this gets 17/20.