Short on Ammo

On Short on Ammo, Refusal has shed the last vestiges of thrash from their metal, and moved to full-blown, modern US-styled death metal, with some brutal and even punkish or, rather, grindcorish, elements. No more death-thrash of any description, but straight, pummeling death metal, with perhaps a bit of catchy edge, and, well, a wee bit too easy to listen.

The demo combines at least three different vocal styles. There's classical death growl, coarse shouting, and odd high screeching background screams, possibly borrowed from some brand of old-school hardcore. The tempo stays rather high throughout the 9 minutes, and the whole is a really compact package, with just the second track out of the three reaching three minutes in length. Which is the perfect length for a demo of this kind of exhausting material. There are a few breathers of slower sections, but the whole is steamrolling, and leaves the listener catching his breath afterwards. Just as this sort of death metal is supposed to do. Just the third track, "G.O.A.", somehow occasionally drags its feet, and opens up with a practically simplistic riff that reeks of punk more than of death metal.

Soundwise, the demo is very professional, and the bass-heavy, thick and ruthlessly clear sound shows that the band doesn't have any skill shortages to hide; on the contrary, as far as the pure talent in the recording studio goes, the band is ready to be signed. The drums could perhaps use a bit more power, but the whole is balanced in a straightforward way. Also, despite the mild criticism towards the last track, the whole is stylistically a wholesome piece of art.

The general trend among the local death-thrash revival bands seems to be divergence from the basic formula. The general development can definitely be considered positive, and in Refusal's case, the abandoning of the thrash elements has resulted in a demo that perhaps shows respect to the current scene on the other side of the Atlantic, and probably works wonders in a live setting. Now, the significance of the choice could be debated, but to the ears of an old-school metalhead, with fond memories of the days of the original death-thrash bands of the late 80s and early 90s, and immense personal delight found in the extremely high quality of the young bands of the Finnish death-thrash revival wave, the new material somehow sounds like an… …easy choice. It's obviously commercially a very viable road to take, as evidenced by the relative success of such bands as Torture Killer and Sotajumala. Instead of finding something new, the skilled and capable band has taken a well-beaten path, and while the product itself is likable and very well executed, the topmost feeling is that of of a mild but unavoidable let-down: there's potential for more… much more. While steering further into the thrash territory would certainly have led to similar results, only within the bounds of another genre, there might be a third path to take, and that is the philosopher's stone these young men should focus on finding.

On the positive side, the most obvious traps have been avoided, and such musical equivalents of french fries 'n cole slaw on the side of the steak itself as pinch harmonics or extensive breakdowns are not there. This is quite pure-bred metal in its stylings, and it might well be that the future brings more personality to the death metal that on Short on Ammo aim to capture the attention of the fans of the aforementioned local bands and perhaps such US groups as Six Feet Under.

Also, certain things always work. The glorious cowbell is still there!