Hula dancing? Pit BBQ's? Little plucky sounding guitars? If you're sayin' "Me NO Likee", then how about thrashin in a pit to crunchy distortion? That's what you're gonna get from Hawaii's very own, Theocracy A.D. Welcome to our Island is the 11 song debut LP title and the CD is available from the band for $12, S&H included. Formerly known as "Bloodbath" the band has been labeled Pacific-power-noise-core, which, I very much agree, is a proper label of their sound. Some have spoken of this band as being Deathmetal? Not even close. The music is very much old school thrash..not Hardcore, but thrash. The vocals on the other hand are best described as hardcore, but not along the full blown straining style such as Overcome and Strongarm. I have to note that I was very disappointed with the production of this CD. The double bass has TERRIBLE sound quality and overpowers everything else when in full force (quite often).
The lyrics are very thought out and far from corny-cheeseball rhymes. Here's an excerpt from "How Long?":
Division caused by doctrine foundationally distorted views
Discrepant heresy proclaimed tares in the pews
Leaning on their knowledge professing wisdom yet a fool
Adding and deleting to preach a lie they choose.
Both "Yield to none" and "Least of these" have bits of bruising tribal drumming accompanied with torque loaded guitar ala Sepultura. Throughout this LP the band sings in chorus and it does them NO justice. I can't tell if this is another production flaw, but they have zero depth or power (very monotone), which is the whole point of singing together. There is no question this is an old school thrash sounding album, so if that's your fancy then you should pet this kitty. Personally, I was burnt on this CD in 2 weeks mainly because I heard nothing original or distinguishing in composition, as well as the weak production.
5.5/10
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 1997Reviewed by Josh SpencerThese guys have been around for a while, under the name 'Bloodbath'. Finally they have recorded a CD, and it's a good balance of thrash and hardcore. There's no new ground broken here, but definitely some nice heaviness, creative drumming, and lots of gallop-picking (yeah). Lyrics are thoroughly evangelical, but the vocals are the almost-unintelligible hardcore shouting variety, so don't plan on…Similar sounding releases
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