Corrupt Them All

Is it great musically? Well...it's okay. Certainly, this is a step up from the blatant meme-fest that was Super Heavy Galactic Stuff, but even that EP, despite its banal riffing and questionable production, absolutely had its moments, and those moments largely existed at the unsettling rubicon of comedy and horror that Alex himself (intentionally or no) often straddles. Image of the Beast, for example, was terrifying. And that's not because it's exactly a great song compositionally speaking. It was scary because when Alex's mad tirades are paired with a creeping electrical score and doom-metal bass, I can't help but wonder if we really ARE about to be devoured by a gigantic, Lovecraftian computer-demon designed by George Soros and Bill Gates. In other words, despite its flaws, it sold itself, somehow managing to cross the line from gen-z meme-comedy into cutting-edge contemporary horror.

Corrupt Them All ramps his principle up several times, and possibly more. While being fairly par-for-the-course contemporary death metal, there's still something genuinely revolutionary here, in the sense that I get the same oddly syncretic Christian war-cult vibe I get from the burgeoning Christian War Metal scene. Is this syncretism a positive? Well, no. But it's a new thing, at least in the world of metal, and I think that's interesting in and of itself. Some other things worth noting: the riffs, production, and composition are far, far improved this time around. CTA is definitely more brutal than deathcore. The solos are cool, the sound is meaty and crushing; occasionally, it's even complex. I'd say the vox have improved—maybe just because Alex has gotten crazier. Most of the electronic stuff has recessed into the background. I'm not sure that's an improvement, as the metronome can be so simplistic as to be annoying, but it does make the EP more "accessible" to metal purists like me. This is angrier, faster, heavier; tight and short enough to keep you from noticing the almost complete lack of musical innovation—again, unlike SHGS, which dragged on a bit too much for its own good.

The negatives? Well, despite a lack of any glaring flaws, and the appeal of the memes, this is still at bottom a very basic, very unremarkable, perhaps slightly faster-than-average contemporary death metal / deathcore album. Fundamentally, Corrupt Them All appeals as a novelty item, and that's a pretty serious crime in my view. There's also a lot less thematic nuance. While SHGS was largely disturbing due to its sense of lurking evil, CTA is frightening only because the demons have played all their cards. Everything's on the table now; it's us, Alex, and maybe some decent Republicans versus all the forces of Hell. In an aesthetic sense, you can take this as being either hilarious or stupid, maybe both; in a historic sense, it's rather fascinating. The Alex Jones Prison Planet may have started as a joke, but I'm not sure even the creators are laughing. Not anymore. Everything's far too serious this time around. I mean LOOK. HE'S LITERALLY IN A SUIT OF ARMOR FIGHTING THE DEVIL. What's going on here, man? Who started taking this joke seriously? Why? Maybe because jokes, even good ones, are always less interesting than the genuine hint of real conviction.