Order and Punishment

My interest in !T.O.O.H.! was the result of fanatic love of Cattle Decapitation and all of its (later) albums. The distinct genre they played, listed as progressive death-grind caught my attention and led me to search for similar artists in the genre: !T.O.O.H.!. What I heard was a complete different listening experience, for better or for mediocrity.

The songs on this album are either stand out hits, or nothing memorable, coming from someone writing this review shortly after listening to the album. About only 3 songs on the album stood out to me, solely based on the riffs: Al-Amin, Rad A Trest, and Kali. The other instrumentation doesn't lend to these songs in the slightest, aside from some slight variation in the vocals.

The vocal shrieking is has extreme personality and identity, but comes off as goofy, and novel. Whether or not this was on purpose, I don't know, but considering the lyrical themes, i think not. Though I do admire, the fact the band wrote in the lyric booklet what each song is about, considering the lyrics are written and performed in Czech.

The production is admirably clean with audible bass guitar (something i always appreciate) and a snappy sounding and tight drumming, however i was not impressed with the constant blast beats consistently boring me. The guitar and riffs are considerably strong on this album and the best part of it, ESPECIALLY on Rad A Trest, my favorite track overall on the album.

I only picked up this album, because i saw it in my local record shop, and recognized the band name. Do i regret it? No, but does it hold up to the death-grind name? Not to me, as this album leans more to the progressive side of metal, while still have some death-grind moments with the vocal style time to time. If this was the final album, that would be totally acceptable, but i hope !T.O.O.H.! slays it with their upcoming in the works. I'll probably buys it, but this album doesn't sell me on the band completely.