Коррозия Металла / Corrosion Of Metal - Компьютер-Гитлер / Computer-Hitler - „Ey, racists, this album is shit!“ - 38% (16/05/14)

What the hell is this? Pitiless speed and thrash metal band Korrozia Metalla that had hit the Russian scene hard with its punk attitude, overtly occult lyrics and secret concert shows over the eighties has transformed into a weird project with highly instable line-ups, a confusing mixture of styles from country music over industrial rock to grindcore and disgustingly patriotic lyrics. Add a tad of unexpected instrumental surprises, an ugly album cover and the weird title “Computer-Hitler” and you get their infamous release from 1997. This album is so weird that it’s definitely an entertaining gem.

The band opens the album with the dark and industrially driven “My Brain is a Computer” that comes around with crispy vocals and a few fast paced passages reminding me of hardcore punk. The simplistic chorus is quite catchy though and almost reminds me of the band’s early years. Add weird audio samples in the middle part as well as a break with acoustic guitars and an overlong abominable electric guitar solo to the potpourri. This opener perfectly stands for Korrozia Metalla in 1997. The band sounds angrier than ever and mixes a high number of different genres into one potpourri to express its controversial feelings. Some musical ideas are actually energizing and fresh while others are total bummers and don’t fit into this at all. The song writing isn’t structured at all. Overall, this record is more of a raw punk record than a speed metal release.

Let’s talk about the most outstanding or unusual tracks on this release. “Too Late” is a piano ballad with mostly spoken word passages and an epic chorus. It’s the kind of ballad you would expect from a less talented old school punk band. This song sounds actually really horrible.

“Rap is Shit” is a true abomination with many annoying vocal effects, repetitive lyrics and the same monotonously destructive riff. The ending switches to a grindcore apocalypse. The song basically makes of fun of an entire genre and insults people who are listening to this kind of music in a very racist way. The track is really bad but it will stay on your mind and you won’t get rid of it because it’s so ridicolous.

“In Paradise” is a mixture of a country song and boring commercial rock music of the nineties. The band included three different singers: one performing once again almost bored spoken word parts, the raw original voice and a female background vocalist. The band desperately tries to experiment, sound diversified and come around with something original but the final result is once again of average quality at best. The song ideas feel really incoherent.

In the end, this very short album delivers a couple of surprises in a rather negative way. The limited edition of the album includes a live track where the band was extremely drunk, another live song recorded in Crimea with a questionable introduction by a war veteran that gets a whole new dimension in relation to current events in this region and a vintage version of an old German folk song that became popular during World War II. These things don’t really rate this record up though. If you are looking for a weird punk album with a potpourri of odd genres and experiments, this infamous underground gem should be on your list. The album has at least a certain entertaining value. Fans of early Korrozia Metalla should stay away from this record.