Stillbirth Machine

For one so overlooked, this truly is a landmark album. Perhaps it's that everyone was too distracted with the then burgeoning second wave of black metal. Probably it's the fact that this record didn't so much birth (or even belong to) a single sub-genre of metal but instead created it's own idiom with a philosophy attached. And that idiom would only be taken up by a handful of bands to come.

Sonically, this record is/was totally mutant to it's time. Imagine the Teutonic thrash trios bathed in LSD and hanging out listening to Morbid Angel with martians. Yeah, it's THAT weird. But don't get me wrong, this stuff is in no way confused or primitive. These guys have a message and know exactly what they're doing, even if you don't.

One aspect that makes this album so unique is it's hyper technical musicianship meets fuzzed out production quality. Helmkamp delivers some of the craziest death metal bass-lines the '90s had heard through a sponge of distortion. This gives the songs a manic, death metal-y feel. The drummer enhances this by never playing any blasts and rarely resorting to straight-forward kick, snare beats. As much as macho metalheads might boast about death metal with constant blasts and tremolo being so 'tr00' and 'br00tal', this shit is the REAL deal. Rhythmic patterns that never repeat and riffs that hardly ever indicate a key signature: this is actual audio chaos.

It's utterly pointless identifying songs and admonishing individual riffs. The beauty of the record is that everyone will latch on to different passages and consider different riffs great, over time. This is because, for the most part, they're all equally nuts. What's great also is how after a few preliminary listens you begin to hear things you never heard before. Unlike the black metal records of the day, this is not because of the music being buried by the production, no, these songs are just too insane to absorb on first spin. Not to mention that the experience of first hearing O.F.C. is similar to having your skull crushed by a panzer tank.

Similarly, the lyrics are so dense you feel bombarded. Pete's vo-kills are the raspiest of mid-ranged vomits. And he doesn't waste a second of you're time; cramming his hate for the human sheep down you're throat until you cough it back up with blood. When he tells you "I am an alien from another world/Sent to communicate a message" you believe him. I know I do...

As for the music, it really sits between black, death and thrash with the latter two getting emphasis. But the music is so frenetic it doesn't quite thrash and, as I said before, there are no blasts or growls here.

The bloodline linking O.F.C. to Canadian maniacs Axis of Advance is clearly seen in the war-crazed bastard kult of Revenge. But bands like Sacramentary Abolishment and Angelcorpse as well as the aforementioned all have their roots planted deeply in this toxic waste spill of a metal album.

Order From Chaos' strength came undeniably from their unrelenting vision and musical conviction. This debut showcases a band who've already upturned convention and carved their own niche. May they live on in fucking CHAOS!