Timber

What's with the French and their forestry? First you had the boggling Hate at First Seed debut from Phazm, a concept album about an arboreal revolution against mankind. And now we've got the debut of the world's premiere lumber hauling death metal band!? Alright, don't quote me on that, because they're not all that great. Timber features five tracks of passable death metal, sandwiched by an intro/outro.

Lumberjack plays it safe, with a slightly technical edge to their thrashing brand of death metal. "Jack Herrer" is a winding tech thrasher with some fantastic bass playing and catchy machine gun rhythms. "Horror Forest" is another technical slaughterfest, with some crisp and maniacal guitar work, and "Revenge of the Carnivorous Plant" is a more groove-a-long track, with some pummeling, chugging rolls and squeals. "Were Wolf" has some fine old school lines that weave into the band's blasting trauma.

The lyrics are fairly 'meh', I'd like to see them do more with the concept of the band. However, the musicianship is fairly fierce, and I think they've got more than a simple gimmick here. The EP sounds clear and professional. Think of a band like Necrophagist or Suffocation mixed with early, thrashing Pestilence, and add an unrefined sense of humour, and you'll wind up at Lumberjack.

Highlights: Were Wolf, Jack Herrer, Revenge of the Carnivorous Plant

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com