Smashing Mag / "Hope You Die Soon By Overdose" : Arkangel

Arkangel

"Hope You Die Soon By Overdose"
(UK import )

The official site

Arkangel

http://www.arkangelonline.com/

check the album?

other works

"Dead Man Walking"
(US import )

The sound and vision of an unrelenting flogging encapsulated in just 37 minutes and 20 seconds, but that IS exactly what Belgium's Arkangel do in their 'Hope You Die Soon By Overdose.' Equal parts nightmarish and maniacally empowering, this 11-sessioned therapy echoes Kubrick's classic D.I. harkings in Full Metal Jacket of "Good for you...Good for you. Good for me...Good for me."

Whether looking to rage while working out, knocking some drinks back or simply detaching amongst the sprawling 9 plus minute title track, Baldur Vilmurdarson (vocals), David Vande Zande (drums), Michel Kirby (guitars) and Mehdi Jouj (bass) give you something to grip and rip in its entirety. Opening with old school chunking, hammering drillings of "Then," Arkangel streamline into "Annihilating Your Peace," which gives a heavier take on damnation than Henri Rollins-era Black Flag. Skin had possibly been potato-peeled for this as the blood curdling callings simply cannot help you stop from either staring at yourself in the mirror possessed or looking behind you in utter paranoia. This IS the metal answer to Eminem's touted, but overly commercialized "Lose Yourself" in its power. Even more than the aforementioned, it's surprisingly layered and you recognize it more and more with each listen. And just as you have entered this new reality, you suddenly get completely caught in a brutal firefight in "How We See The World" that sounds the alarm clock within to move out and move out fast as the incomings get heavier and heavier, but then washes out as if you are in shellshock on your back, amazed you are still alive. The reflective closer "You Had To Go" cleanly guides you out their clinic.

reviewed by michael

Recent Pick Ups

String Cheese Incident