TERMINAL FUNCTION - Clockwork Sky
October 20, 2015, 8 years ago
(Willowtip)
Back in 2008, Sweden's Terminal Function put out an album on Willowtip that you forget existed called Measuring The Abstract. I forgot about it too, kinda still do even though I'm staring at the album cover as we speak. But here's what I know: I trust the folks at Willowtip HQ big time, the label without a doubt one of the best at delivering quality extreme metal operating today.
I'm a bit less sold on Terminal Function, though, and now remember why: too many Meshuggian grooves and a general sense of no fun ever permeates these 40 minutes, the clean vocals on "Dream Traveler" not quite doing the trick, but almost selling me. And that sentiment sums up this album, the band continually almost getting me with the intense machine-gun riffs, which they do extremely well, but then boring/bumming me out a minute later with a general sense of same, not just with the sonics, but with the emotional ebb and flow, which is null and void, except when they do cool freakies like the intro to "Cell Intrusive", which brings the Atheist and Cynic approach to death metal back big time, and you think, damn, they're on to something, and the cool sung part in this song totally works. Then, more machine-gun riffs.
