MATAMACHETE "Tanin No Kao" DTRASH109 Reviews


Brutalism.com (www.brutalism.com)

I couldn’t find many evidences about this Swiss outfit via the internet, however in a way or another I managed to gather more info about this band. This band is relatively new to me and before I review their stuff, I wanna say that this band will surely deserve your attention.
Sources defined the musical genre of Matamachete as Industrial Cyber Punk, and this definition is true in light of what they perform; however I don’t think such definition will suffice. Having Punk as main structure, their guitar riffing is quite pounding at times (typical of Death Metal and Hardcore), and harshness plus extremity is never lacking. In addition, other musical elements like Crossover and a bit of Grind-core (which originated from Punk to such an extent) are also present. As well, hints of groovy Drum’n’Bass is occasionally present through the performance of a distorted bass and the outstanding drumming.
On the other hand, their music is well filled with slithering Industrialized sounds, break-beats and other electronic sounds which make the whole release diverse, rich and not boring. This is a release which will definitely keep the listener awake and hyper. Also I shouldn’t even exclude the dual vocals performed in such a style that can be found in Hardcore and NU Metal, varying from yells, speeches, lo-fi voices and other variations which spice up the music.
Just imagine a bit of Red Hot Chili Peppers, together with Industrialized grooves and sounds from The Prodigy all accompanied by the toughness of Modern chunky Metal.
Matamachete represents one of those very few who managed to provide a proper mix of Metal and Electronic music.

Exclaim Magazine (www.exclaim.ca)
 

Connexionbizarre.net Zine (www.connexionbizarre.net)

The members of this Swiss band define their own music as a mix between punk, drum 'n' bass and industrial. Reading this statement, one could easily be led to believe that Matamachete is just another one of these digital punk, Atari Teenage Riot wanna-be bands which are often described this way. In this case, just listen and you'll quickly find out that you were wrong...
Matamachete's unique sound is mainly punk and harcore-based (old-school American hardcore to be more precise), sprinkled with some hard-techno beats, drum'n'bass/breakbeat programmings and a few synth lines. That means that the guitars and vocals are basically more over-mixed than the electronics. Speaking of punk and hardcore influences, Matamachete's music is full of an energy and a primal rage which are very much typical of these genres - you can feel them into the harsh screamed vocals and the guitar riffs, which are as they always should be in this music style: simple and tough. Their lyrics express lots of anger, oppression and frustration, but also a huge will to survive and to keep their head held high while facing the pain and the unfairness of this world. Well, not very original, one could say, but obviously really efficient and powerful. As a matter of fact, once you put this CD into your player and press 'play', you can't stop head-banging until the end!
The album's title, "Tanin No Kao", and the eponym track (one of my personal favorites on this record), contains Japanese words and seems to be inspired by the samurai way of life and code of honour (though I can't be sure of this as I am not fluent in Japanese). However that may be, to sum things up, this record's general atmosphere is pretty dark, cold and clinical, as you can easily guess by seeing the artwork, which deserves to be mentioned: the cover photo shows a girl shot in the eye by a high-tech syringe. The result is beautiful and disturbing, just as Matamachete's music!

Graveconcernsezine.com Zine (www.graveconcernsezine.com)

With their mixture of hard drum 'n' bass beats, aggressive guitars, and punk-inspired shouts (often in Japanese, no less), Swiss group Matamachete are one of the more interesting things to hit the industrial scene of late. "Modus Operandi" opens their newest album with a violent blast pummeling breakbeats, chunky metal guitar riffs, and atonal yelps, something like what you'd imagine Mindless Self Indulgence would sound like if you replaced the juvenile humor with some real punk nihilism. Title track "Tanin No Kao" is brutal but funky, Japanese lyrics barked through a vocoder over gargantuan guitar chords and a rumbling hip-hop rhythm, and "Greed" can't quite decide of it's sexy or angry, pairing a throbbing bass and dirty synth sequence with mean guitars and throat-tearing shrieks. For all its intensity and barely controlled rage, this album has its lighter moments, too. "Brand of the Beast" and "Count Me Out" cross new school metal grooves with hip-hop breaks and a cleaner vocal delivery; they're big and brutal, but there's a funky vibe that's infectious and fun. "Freedom of Choice" actually slows down the electronics to a tempo approaching mellow, though the staccato vocals and sharp guitar riffs give the song its requisite edge, and "Few Things to Share" is one of the album's slowest tracks as well as its darkest, vocals snarled over a languid but oppressive rhythm section. With an aesthetic that draws on aggressive breakbeat and jungle rhythms as well as unapologetically metal guitar riffs, this is an album that manages to appeal in equal measure to drum 'n' bass and hard rock fans; it will especially appeal to fans of the new breed of industrial metal represented by groups like Rabbit Junk.

Chain DLK Magazine (www.chaindlk.com)

"My heart warms up when I receive music from Swiss bands. Aside from the fact that I was born there, a bunch of great electro/industrial bands come from there (Young Gods, Sybreed, Apollyon Sun, Swamp Terrorist) ...not to mention one of the earliest electronic instruments (check out 120years.net)!Anyway, Matamachete is a 5 piece industrial-metal grounp from the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. With the Canadian label D-Trash (always open and focused on what's new in the world of digital hardcore) they found a home for their second full length record "Tanin No Kao" (The Face of Another, a 1966 japanese movie). Less glitchy and more structured than other D-Trash releases I've reviewed, Matamachete borrow equally from the cyberpunk and the aggro-industrial worlds. Their brilliant production work (by Nino Mauro) is clearly of electronic matrix but their sonic attack and attitude is much more in-your-face punk-rock. As you might have guessed, luckily their singing style escapes the used & over-abused EBM tradition. Instead they go all the way with their two singers, and if anything, they sound more like an Organge 9mm-type post-core band. Matamachete dirty distorted bass lines, wild drumming and hardcore singing remind me a lof of a band called RSU (Rifiuti Solidi Urbani, from Italy) but you can also detect several metal influences and everything in between: Unsane, Pitch Shifter, Dope Stars Inc. (also from Italy), Lard, Mysery Loves Company, Nailbomb (especially on Matamachete's last song sung in Portuguese, when you can't help it but to be reminded of Sepultura's Ratamahatta days), Atari Teenage Riot and so on and so forth...All of this is packaged with great art work (by Andrea Todaro) featuring a hot local model, some s/m leather fetish hints and some Japanese Kanji. What more could one possibly want? Great record for you to check out!"

Regen Magazine (www.regenmag.com)

"With their mixture of hard drum 'n' bass beats, aggressive guitars, and punk-inspired shouts (often in Japanese, no less), Swiss group Matamachete are one of the more interesting things to hit the industrial scene of late. "Modus Operandi" opens their newest album with a violent blast pummeling breakbeats, chunky metal guitar riffs, and atonal yelps, something like what you'd imagine Mindless Self Indulgence would sound like if you replaced the juvenile humor with some real punk nihilism. Title track "Tanin No Kao" is brutal but funky, Japanese lyrics barked through a vocoder over gargantuan guitar chords and a rumbling hip-hop rhythm, and "Greed" can't quite decide of it's sexy or angry, pairing a throbbing bass and dirty synth sequence with mean guitars and throat-tearing shrieks. For all its intensity and barely controlled rage, this album has its lighter moments, too. "Brand of the Beast" and "Count Me Out" cross new school metal grooves with hip-hop breaks and a cleaner vocal delivery; they're big and brutal, but there's a funky vibe that's infectious and fun. "Freedom of Choice" actually slows down the electronics to a tempo approaching mellow, though the staccato vocals and sharp guitar riffs give the song its requisite edge, and "Few Things to Share" is one of the album's slowest tracks as well as its darkest, vocals snarled over a languid but oppressive rhythm section. With an aesthetic that draws on aggressive breakbeat and jungle rhythms as well as unapologetically metal guitar riffs, this is an album that manages to appeal in equal measure to drum 'n' bass and hard rock fans; it will especially appeal to fans of the new breed of industrial metal represented by groups like Rabbit Junk. Check out Matamachete online at www.matamachete.com ." Matthew J.

Side-Line Magazine (www.side-line.com)

"For those who don’t know the Canadian D-Trash Records yet, be careful because this label only signs very hard, brute and sonic punks. Terms like hardcore aren’t far away, but defining the sound of The Swiss Matamachete is a hard piece of cake! There’s a real important mishmash of ideas, which can be compared to an offspring of bands like Type O’Negative, NIN and Public Enemy, but more furious, faster and definitely punk-noise-like. It might sound like a cheap improvisation and a brute production, but I’ve been literally surprised by the impressive qualitative level of the global production from this album. It only proves that a band dealing with a harsh and noisy style of music can also take care for a professional recording with a great production work. Musical wise get ready for some terrific and tympana-damaging assaults while 2 singers are acting like devils. Matamachete is a heavy piece of dynamite that will come to blow your head away… in the purest tradition of their label!" (DP:6)DP.