Lunatic

There is an endless list of generalisations and stereotypes that exist about different nations and the people/communities that permeate them. One such stereotype is that New Zealanders fuck sheep, another that says that all Philippino’s eat is pigs knees and chicken feet. Of course some of these are based in reality. However, one I cant get my head around is the claim that there is no metal scene in France, or very little. When it comes to my own favourite bands, a great deal of the best are French, including Benighted, Kronos, Gorod etc, and another quintet called Pitbulls in the Nursery.

PITN play a style of technical death metal that doesn’t revolve around trying to put you to sleep by trying to play in 4 different time signatures at once. This music is flawless in its own peculiar way, and one of the only reasons that I deducted points is because I don’t listen to it as regularly as I used to (although this could be more due to my evolving tastes). They have developed a very unique jazzy sound, where the emphasis has been diverted from melody into rhythm, which makes the album extremely entertaining to listen to.

First off, the production. Every instrument can be clearly heard and recognised on this album, but each of them sound slightly altered compared to what you would find on a regular death metal album. The guitars have a harsher edge, and the focus has been taken off distortion for the sake of distortion. The bass is clearly audible but has more of a twangy characteristic that suits the music very well. The drums are produced *amazingly* well. Each of the individual drums and cymbals etc has a very unique, precise sound, especially the snare and the bass drum. Finally, Panda’s vocals are again different to regular death metal vocals, for me they took a while to warm up to but now they seem to compliment the music very nicely. All in all, you could listen to this album 4 times in a row without getting bored, simply by focussing on each of the respective instruments and taking in all that they have to offer individually.
As mentioned above this is a highly rhythmic album. This is accentuated with some ingeniously dynamic drum patterns and fills, never once does he resort to blasts. It is obvious that Jerry is an extremely resourceful and intuitive instrumentalist. The drums blow me away every time I hear this album.

Although for the most part the bass assists the drums in forming the rhythmic sound of the album, it also tends to deviate from the path the guitars carve through your head to wander off on its own tangent, adding yet another awesome layer. There are a few bass solos sprinkled throughout the album as well, for instance in Lunatic, at about 21 seconds in, and also in Monkey’s Masturbation at 12 seconds. You can hear a lot of jazz influences in the bass (in fact in all the instruments) and when they each give each other a moment to rest, this really shines through.

And then we have the guitars, carving a constantly inspiring path through the music while playing around and toying with each other, creating some intriguing interplay. They still retain the rhythmic aspects of the album, while creating some unconventional leads (note: NOT “unconventional” like Psycroptic or any of the other bands that come together to form the sea of technical death metal mediocrity).

The vocals are what they are, while being slightly different to your average death metal grunter, there is no variation and nothing is particular understandable. However this is only a small detractor, and in fact they can be ignored if you choose to do so.

Throughout the album there is an assortment of jazzy interludes and intros etc that add some extra flavour to the album. These cleaner sections are always very pleasing to the ears, my favourite section being the two and a half minute track Antagony. Very cruisy stuff that fits perfectly. Songwriting on this album is again, very unique. No verse-chorus-verse structures to be seen for miles, musical themes are developed over the entirety of the tracks, and the inclusion of the aforementioned jazzy interludes breaks it up a little bit as well. This overall style helps to convey the title of the album, especially on the title track - everything is precise and calculated but somehow still doesn't follow the conventional thought patterns (the drumming greatly assists in this).

Overall, Pitbulls in the Nursery have released an outstanding album. While not particularly brutal or aggressive, it manages to thoroughly grasp your attention for the whole fifty seven and a half minutes of its course. As a side note, when listening to Monkey’s Masturbation, try to picture just that. I can see the little guy going at full speed! (the filthy ape) If slightly offbeat, unique death metal is your thing, you owe it to yourself to have a listen to Lunatic.