Noiz

Item: Seeds of the Living
Author: D_Lister

Seeds of the Living

(1999)

Reviewed by D_Lister

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Label independentDead Zine2002

death metal thrash metal

FIRST and FOREMOST....it's ZION spelled backwards OK?!? They are not being completely cheesy with the word noise here...well OK even if it's Zion backwards I'll admit there is a feeling of Wisconsin's finest there, but still it's not as bad as some people make it out to be.

I've had this CD for over a month now and have been listening to it a lot trying to determine exactly what it is I feel about this CD. I think after all that time I know what it is. I really really like this CD. For a German band doing Death Metal they certainly have an American flare a lot of the time. No, it's not as death/grindy as Crimson Thorn and the guitars do have euro-death sound to them but more over I think they sound straight up like an early 90's death band from south Florida!

Why am I only giving it a rating of 7 if I dig it so much? Something about the dude's snare drum just does NOT sound right, and truthfully it really hurts the overall sound here. I can't tell if it's the equipment he uses or if it's something to do with the mixing but most the time it sounds like the guy is hitting a block of wood. NO not like a nice thick snare drum, it's hard to describe but it really takes away from the sound.

Musically these guys have some great ideas. They start the CD off with a track called "Leaving Despairs Empire", which is nothing more than an organ intro that sounds as if it came right out of an old horror movie. The song blends seamlessly into "Stronger". Overall their riffs are tight, fast and creative, and in typical early 90's death style used sparingly. What I mean is they develop a few riffs and one song is born by repeating them. As a result their songs are short, 2 and half to five minutes most around the 3 minute mark.

Lyrically I'm torn. At one moment I'm loving these guys to death over their lyrics, (Charity, and Save) the next moment I'm thinking they should have enlisted the help of someone for input (Radical and Save). "Wait a minute D, you listed 'Save' on the good and bad, what gives?" You're right I did. One of the things I have an issue with is they are from Germany and sing in English, yet it's broken to the point of almost being annoying. I love the idea of the song Save, yet some of the lines just don't fit. Actually I like their approach to lyric writing on pretty much every song, but Save really stands out.

Breaking it down this is a very good release by Noiz, and true death metal fans who want a new release should check it out. No don't expect this to be one of your best purchases in the past 6 months, but it won't be your worst either.

7/10