| Reviews for Livercage's Burned Alive and Killed... |
| Mostly pointless - 42% |
| Written by Noktorn
on May 7th, 2009
|
| (Note: This review covers the newer re-released version of this album.) This is, rather predictably, one of Livercage's weaker releases; this comes from an era of the band long before their bizarre yet ultimately serious form of electronic black metal fully emerged, and is much closer to a joke created on a lark by some friends rather than a fully realized release. There's nothing wrong with that, though I don't entirely see the point of releasing it; only about a third of the tracks on this disc are really 'real' songs, and the rest are minimal ambient or strange in-jokes without real punchlines. This is of historical note for the band, and though some of the music isn't entirely without merit, I would hardly call this Livercage's most important release. Funnily enough, the minimal ambient tracks which pop up here and there end up being the best material on 'Burned Alive And Killed'. Very similar to what would later be crafted by Livercage's sister project Temple Of Abraxas, these tracks are murky, swirling, and enjoyable to listen to despite the simplicity of elements and brevity of track times. They don't really end up generating anything more than idle interest in the listener, but you can certainly see the roots of more developed compositions in tracks like 'Neptune's Marsh 2' or 'Into The Dark Spot', both of which could be taken from some long-lost episode of 'The Twilight Zone'. They're good tracks, if unrefined, and probably better suited to an individual EP. Apart from those, though, the joke tracks are rather pointless and the more black metal ones are very hit or miss. The title track and 'Nuclear Winter' are cool and reflect what the band would later do on albums like 'Impaled And Forgotten', but the rest range from forgettable to pretty bad, trending towards the latter. Even the 'serious' tracks are half-joking, and predictably the music suffers for it; none of the songs apart from the previous two mentioned really end up going anywhere, and as such are pretty pointless. There's nothing necessarily wrong with circular music, but I'm jaded by Livercage's later albums which manage to destroy a good chunk of the material commonly found in the 'experimental' reaches of the metal scene. It might seem a bit silly to judge an album like 'Burned Alive And Killed' as though it were a serious release, but given the quality of later releases like 'Pick Up That Axe And Cut Them Down!', I think it's a fair tradeoff. Anyway, this can be safely skipped by all but the most obsessive of Livercage fans; they get much better later on, so stick with their material after this for best results. |