Order and Punishment

So, my experience with !T.O.O.H.!, which I will just call TOOH for the rest of this review, is kind of odd. I don't really remember buying this album. I kind of always just owned it and I'm not sure when I got it. I would turn it on here and there when I wanted some absurd sounding death metal in the background of whatever it was I was doing. I never looked up the lyrics and rarely paid any attention to this band in depth. I sort of know their history with Earache, but anything else was never brought to my attention. I recently wanted to sit down and write out my thoughts on my entire metal collection. TOOH is on the top of my list and what I listened to was pretty bizarre.

First of all, I do want to say that this band fucking shreds on instrumentals and vocals. The drumming and bass is all so prominent. You can appreciate the complexity in every song. For example, "To Je Jizda Bozinku" is a beautiful tune and one of my personal highlights. The final two minutes doesn't have any vocals and you can just sit there and soak in the raw talent. There is a lot to appreciate on this album as a whole, to the point where it's difficult to concentrate. Every musician is playing their ass off and to focus on one over the other is a mistake. Also, this album is not in English. So, I had to look up an English translation while trying to appreciate everything. It honestly will take a few listens to form a proper opinion. I do have to say that I wish I never looked up what the lyrics actually meant.

Never in a million years I would think this album would have the lyrical content that it has. It's filled with really dark humor and rape scenarios. The English translation I looked up had lyrics like,

"I'll fuck this rotten asses!
I'll cum on your bald heats!
God himself, is my reward:
I am samaritan"

and

"and be sure thats gonna hurt
just like my name is Abu-Hassan
I'll hang that little piggy on hooks ...

I already got a boner"

I obviously wasn't ready for that. I looked up a few different translations and it seems to all be the same. It's pretty hilarious, but at the same time kind of takes away from the instrumentals. Maybe it's because I listened to this album so much that I had this perceived notion of what this band was saying. The vocals are pretty out there, so I guess it matches that in a way. The singer really shrieks and growls his ass off. It's really fun in that aspect, but the lyrics I wouldn't bother with.

Overall, I really like this album, but the lyrics really take away that initial charm I had. If you want to get into this album because you heard so much about it, then I would recommend doing so without looking up the lyrics. I'm usually down for that dark humor and vulgar writing, but not here for some reason. The instrumentals really draw you in and will keep you hooked throughout the entire run time. It's solid from front to back.

Recs: "Al-Amin (Aneb Jak Vycakat Jelito)", "Konec Kontinentalniho Kontejneru", and "To Je Jizda Bozinku"