Elements of Insanity

Acetylene isn't really a band you hear of too much in the Rhode Island scene, and I can see why.

I first heard these guys when they were Lysurgery. Lysurgery was a thrashy kind of band with strange vocals. The singer would go from growling / high screaming to rapping. As a metal head who never really cared much for the rap / rock crossover, this definitely turned me off.

Somewhere along the line, members of Lysurgery and Post-Mortem (A Slayer cover band) came together to form Acetylene. What Acetylene does isn't much different at all from Lysurgery. They have generic thrash riffs with the fast, upbeat drums to accent them. All members of the band are clearly quite talented in what they do.

But again, the vocalist does the distorted vocals with the rapping.

I really don't know what to make of that. Its not rapping like a mainstream rapper, per say, its almost a Suicidal Tendencies kind of shouting / talking with a beat. His screams are excellent, and he clearly has a great range, but one might ask them self "Why the hell is that guy rapping?" It takes away from the mood that the music is setting.

Besides the weird vocals, Acetylene's music is good. They don't play anything over the top, but they definitely don't play anything sub par. They're floating along somewhere in the middle of the road, just playing their riffs. A song that I found myself to really enjoy is the instrumental "Reprisal". I hear a lot of Testament in this song, and that is a big thumbs up in my department.

I can see why Acetylene doesn't seem to get their name out in Rhode Island / New England. They do a style of thrash that burned out years ago, and was far more popular on the West Coast. If they stuck with the growls or screaming, they would be a much stronger band. Check out Acetylene if you're really into thrash, but besides that, they're nothing special.