The Shore

Every musical mistake in history likely sprang forth from the wellspring of experimentation and well-intended ambition, or at least that is how the more polite parts of society like to square certain dreaded fads that managed to garner fleeting mainstream attention/obsession. But when considering the particularly revolting dumbassery that defined most of 90s groove metal, paving the way for its inbred cyclops-boy offspring nu-metal no less, it doesn't really matter if the cause was a random fluke or a diabolical master chef whipping up a worldwide serving of retard salad with Down Syndrome croutons aplenty. Still, there is a strong case to be made that the origin of it all stems from an apparently benign bout of experimentation gone wrong, culminating in a rather bizarre stealth pioneering EP out of one of thrash metal's more avant-garde alumni in Seattle's Forced Entry.

The resulting final whimper in what was otherwise a formidable run from 1983 up till the mid-90s in 1995's post-humus The Shore was, by all standards, a barely visible afterthought upon release into a world that was already three years deep in the drudgery of Pantera's Vulgar Display Of Power and had subsequently seen the rise of Machine Head and post-Arise Sepultura. Curiously enough, the resulting EP in question was actually conceived and fully recorded during the 1990-91 sessions for As Above, So Below, presenting the rather odd eventuality that Forced Entry managed to discover the vapid half-thrash formula and fully realize it in recorded form while Pantera still had one foot firmly trenched in Judas Priest territory while touring on Cowboys From Hell, let alone fully perfecting Machine Head's half-assed sound 3 years before Burn My Eyes hit the shelves.

The songs themselves bear little resemblance to the largely riveting fair that dominated this band's second LP from a qualitative perspective. Even from a formula standpoint this album comes off as a notably dry, anti-climactic, phoned-in shadow of the material that ended up on As Above, So Below, with only Brad Hull's expressive, Darrel Abbot-like lead guitar work showing any consistent signs of life. Consistent with their power trio format, the bass work is highly audible and occasionally shows some technical chops, but Benjamins seems more content to go through the motions and simply mirror Hull's punishingly minimalist groove chugs while vocally straining his signature gruff style into something half the strength of his usual Chuck Billy-inspired shouts. Mattson's drumming is even more of a drag, almost completely aping Vinnie Paul's slower, stagnant beats while largely avoiding those rare bursts of speed metal that were a saving grace on Pantera's 90s output.

What ultimately sinks this EP more than any weakness in the performance of its individual members is lazy songwriting and being consistently stuck in a stagnant, down-tempo quagmire. The opening number "Miasma" has all the heaviness of something Metallica might have had leftover from the sessions of their '91 self-titled commercial romp, but none of the hooks and doesn't really manage to go anywhere apart from a reasonably engaging guitar solo. "Sore" takes this formula one step further and mixes in an almost grunge-like semi-ballad element like a reject from Alice In Chains, with the only saving grace being that Benjamins' avoids trying to ape Layne Staley's vocals. "Sole Train" is a bit more animated, but is so hyper-repetitive and obsessed with those gimmicky guitar noises that Robb Flynn would later use to death that it comes off as comical, and closer "Licking My Wound" could almost be a KoRn song if Hull wasn't routinely shredding.

It would naturally behoove any curious passersby of this EP to take heed of the goofy Morning Wood joke record label name that was slapped on an otherwise independent release and temper their expectations for sonic buffoonery accordingly. As best as can be explained, Forced Entry were a trailblazing band that managed to merge a traditional Bay Area thrash sound of a more progressive bent with some forward looking groove and jazzy elements comparable to other pioneers like Mordred and Blind Illusion, stumbling upon some territory similar to Nevermore and Pantera in the process. These songs are essentially what happens when you strip away all of the good aforementioned elements and leave behind the shell of rhythmic grooves and atmospheric accompaniment to stand alone. It's likely the reason why these songs were not included on the As Above, So Below album, and had clearer thinking prevailed upon this band folding in the wake of a changing musical landscape, this drivel would have been left to collect dust in the studio.

I've always had a soft spot for post-thrash/groove stuff. Whenever an 80's thrash band attempts to "modernize" their sound to fit the narrow mindset of the early 90's, I'm usually intrigued to hear what they have to offer. At the most, I'll be graced with an album that has some interesting songs and ideas, despite sounding much different than their usual fare. And at the very least, I'll be able to have a good laugh at just how epically their experiment failed.

But no. Not this time. This EP doesn't even fall into the "so bad it's good" category; it's just bad. Really, really fucking bad. What's even worse is that Forced Entry were already falling down a slippery slope of mediocrity. While their first album "Uncertain Future" provided us with some truly impressive technical thrash, their sophomore effort "As Above, So Below" left a bittersweet taste in many people's mouths, myself included. It sounded tired and sloppy, a re-hash of their first album with some throwaway joke tracks tossed in. But with this album, the band truly jumped off the diving board and landed face-first into the metal shitpile.

The band sounds like a shell of its former self; all of the technical brilliance that made "Uncertain Future" (and even "As Above" to some extent) so memorable is completely sucked away. And honestly, Forced Entry doing post-thrash groove the right way would actually yield some interesting results. But as with a lot of albums like this, the execution is where it falls flat. It's obvious that they're just trying too hard. The whole EP plods along at a snail's pace, each track an uninspired mish-mash of awkward grooves, atonal guitar riffs and pseudo-Pantera vocals spewing nonsensical angsty lyrics.

The guitars sound very dry and stale, completely neutered by the chug-a-chug riffs and haphazard "melodic" passages that Brad Hull is forced to play. The only time he is allowed to shine is through the occasional solo, which would be the saving grace of this EP if it was actually worth saving. Tony Benjamins' unique thrash yell of old has been corrupted and twisted into a (bad) Phil Anselmo impression, spouting out some of the worst "3edgy5me" lyrics I've heard in a while. His bass is really high in the mix, which is usually a good thing in my book, but the bass lines are so forgettable and nonsensical that they're not even worth hearing. The drums are technically proficient, but that isn't saying much considering what Colin Mattson has to work with. The songs all range from "forgettable" to "fucking lame" to "utter cesspool of shit;" "Soul Train" being the worst of the bunch with its mix-and-match of inconsistent ideas and face-palming vocal lines. Even the SONG TITLES all sound fucking ridiculous! "Sore"? "Licking My Wound"? Come on, guys. I've heard all 3 of you do so much better than this!

How this managed to get bundled with the re-release of Uncertain Future is beyond me. Bottom line, if you're looking for some good post-thrash releases, I highly suggest "Something Wicked" by Nuclear Assault, "Nothing To Gain" by Vio-lence, "The Law" by Exhorder, or even "Renewal" by Kreator. Those albums all have tons more to offer than this 19-minute musical abortion. Go check those records out and be thankful that Forced Entry never made a full-length album of this shit.

Seattle's Forced Entry had initiated some potential with their debut Uncertain Future in 1989, so it was quite a disappointment that the following As Above, So Below did not open new doors for the band, understandable due to its abject stupidity in some sequences. I'm not trying to infer that the first record was some poetic expression of brilliance, but it had this cohesive concoction of meaty, aggressive thrash ridden with quality, unique grooves that could have gotten any pit stirring. Somehow, for some reason, there were a few leftover tracks from the 1990-91 sessions in recording the Relativity sophomore album, and despite the label (and Combat) folding and dumping almost all their metal and hardcore bands, including Forced Entry, this became a good idea down the line to release on some tiny, independent entity.

Essentially, The Shore is a set of four tracks that were not good enough to include on As Above, So Below, which was already not a 'good' album beyond a few moments. I'm struggling as I listen through this to determine whether these tracks would have worked more favorable as a part of the full-length had they replaced "We're Dicks" and "How We Spent Our Summer Vacation", two of the most awkward and retarded slug-offs of any crass thrash brats in history. I'd have to cite that this is indeed only an outside possibility, but only because two of the tracks here are mediocre rather than fucking humiliation of the lowest order. The production is obviously a little more murky, but the bass tones are loud and the material does give the impression of some overcast, dull coastal region with lots of garbage strewn about it.

"Miasma" is a slowly mutating series of chugging rhythms over which the band's deep Hetfield stylisms reign, and I suppose it is somewhat successful at developing a predictable momentum. But really, anyone with a guitar, amp and ability to palm mute could write this in 30 seconds, so its far from impressive, and despite the lead and thick, popping bass below it, its all too easily forgotten. The brief acoustic bliss that inaugurates "Sore" is welcome, but the riffs are simply not all that impressive either. Once again, you get some adequate lead guitar but nothing connecting it at any point on the map. "Soul Train" is like a plebeian thrash piece with even a 'soul' sample inside it, a seething, stupefied mess of no potential, and "Licking My Wound" thinks it can make up for the rest of the EPs failure to launch with some sliding bass coils and funky wailing guitars. Well, it doesn't.

If you want any evidence of why thrash as a reliable form of aggressive release was dead by the 90s, listen to The Shore, which provides an ample education on the neglect of the genre by its own artisans. Instead of progression, thundering riff sequences and lyrics and vocals to die for, this is more of a laid back, phoned in homage to the mere act of plugging in an instrument and using minimal effort to simply fill space. "Miasma" and "Sore" might have sufficed on the full-length in place of the weakest numbers, but neither is good, and the other songs here are about as musically qualified as your last excrement excursion to the local piss parlor. The Shore is just shy of 20 minutes, but that is 20 minutes you could spend mowing the lawn, cutting out coupons from the newspaper or something else equally exciting but more valuable to your life. Fuck this.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Wow, these guys just can't get anything right. This is just flat out completely boring. It's midpaced, boring groove-stuff not unlike Machine Head and Chaos AD and whatever else was the greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread in 1995, except taken to another level of "completely fucking boring" - yep, it's bands like this that left the gates wide open as the mallcore rushed in.

Miasma - sounds like a bad ripoff of Nuclear Assault "Something Wicked" except not nearly as catchy. The vocalist sounds like he's being strangled and just doesn't do a strong performance, and the main riff is, while superficially similar to the Nuclear Assault, really doesn't keep one's interest as long. Oh yes, and all the stupid stop-breaks don't help things, nor does the very boring solo work, the over-loud bass in the mix, or the random distortion bits at the end.

Then it goes downhill from there. Sore has too many stupid little non-thrash vocals moments, sounding more like a late Anacrusis album than anything else, or again some of the worst parts of Nuclear Assault "Something Wicked". Even when they speed up, it still sounds terrible. The guitar tone is that false "heavy" shit that is achieved through downtuning and badly done distortion, not actual riffage. Highly annoying.

Sole Train - more of the same thing. Also, the vocalist goes into a new, even more annoying mode, where he repeats that shit about "yeah you will learn about love" or whatever for a few minutes. Then, there's a fast section, which actually sounds like it's going somewhere, except... it's like that for about 35 seconds. Oh and the bass is still too goddamn loud. Then they slow things down again, and go into more repetitive crap.

Licking My Wound - this is the bounciest, grooviest song on the album. This is just about mallcore here - the vocals are quite whiny, the riffs very very simple, and there are just too many full-stop Vulgar Display of Pantera Ripoff riffs. The absolute bottom of the barrel as far as songwriting is concerned. Phar too phucking phat for my own good.

Since it's an EP, it's bound to get a low rating... the least you can do is have more than 4 songs on a release. Wait, in this case, it's probably a good thing that they stopped at four. There is nothing redeeming about this album at all. It's proto-mallcore shit that makes Machine Head sound like fucking Vio-lence.