You've got to admit, Hacksaw to the Throat is a pretty
fucking brutal name. I found out about these guys when I read the liner notes
on the only album released by deathcore band Eviscerated, which said that the vocalist
from Hacksaw to the Throat is doing guest vocals on a lot or most of the songs
(I don’t know because I can’t find details on the Eviscerated album ANYWHERE).
I know it’s true because…well listen to the very beginning of the last song on
the Eviscerated album, Rectal Trauma. There is no denying that that scream
belongs to Hacksaw to the Throat (I’m sorry, I just really love saying that
name). Making the poor decision of judging the band’s sound on their name, I
was expecting something with a lot of grind and a lot of brutality. Well, I did
nail the grind part, but the brutality…not so much. They incorporate enough death
metal and grindcore to land them a spot in the death grind category. But I
wouldn’t say that they’re PURE death grind.
One thing that I do hear in A FEW places is some metalcore
influence. Most of this takes place in the guitar solos. I say this because not
only do the guitar solos sound like a generic metalcore solo, but a lot of the
lines in the solos strongly remind me of some of the stuff All that Remains has
done. Yes, I know All that Remains’ sound very well because I used to listen to
them profusely when I was in middle school before I found out that I only liked
them because I hadn’t heard anything better at the time (happens to everyone,
no big). So death grind with a hint of metalcore is what I would call Hacksaw
to the Throat.
Ok, for those of you that really don’t like and don’t
tolerate really high-pitched exhaled screams, you’re going to HATE this. And to
be honest, his screams aren’t really that attractive anyway, so it’s not like
you’re missing out on something huge. The vocals do put a whole new twist on
the music (may be a little too much). This isn’t exactly a good thing because
that means the music isn’t complete and strong in all areas. If the music is
primarily dependent on one element (i.e. vocals, drums, etc.), then it makes it
so that when people (mainly critics and music buffs) block out one of the
elements, it can expose the music in a way that the band most likely didn’t
want it to.
The drummer in this band isn’t the worst I’ve ever heard in
my life, but he definitely sucks. He’s attempting to play stuff that he’s not
technically skilled enough to do. For example, a sign that he’s still an
amateur drummer is that he can’t double-kick really fast without getting
exhausted or falling out of time. A good death metal drummer can double-kick at
a consistent speed for a good amount of time and not slow down or fall out of
time (unless for some sick reason they do it on purpose). Now that I’m
listening to the other stuff he does, he can’t really drum at all! He doesn’t
know how to keep time, he’s not skilled, he’s attempting to play patterns and
do tricks that are WAY out of his level, and the word “creative” doesn’t
describe ANYTHING he plays on this record! He taps the ride cymbal way to fast,
he double-kicks way too slow, the way he plays his high hat is inconsistent and
sounds terrible, and he just plain fucking SUCKS! And just about every
metalhead with at least some of his bolts screwed in right knows that a band
with a shitty drummer is a shitty band. Hence supporting the statement “a chain
(or band in this case) is only as strong as its weakest link”.
The guitarists and
bassist are pretty average and generic. They aren’t bad but they don’t have anything
about them that I would call special or unique. The bassist can’t be heard very
well anywhere in this record, which indicates that he’s at the bottom of the
pecking order in this band. The guitarists are fairly good at what they do and
get the job done right. They do slip up a couple of times with the tempo, but
it’s not as noticeable with the drummer there fucking everything up. The
metalcore influence can mainly be heard in some of the main riffs and in one or
two of the solos. But even then, the guitar solos only consist of really fast
tapping (the type of solo that Van Halen made famous). I would give this album
8/20 for being an ok record. I really wouldn’t recommend this to anyone except
for death grind fans and people who want to listen to some unique underground
metal.
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