Artist: Austrian Death Machine
Title: “Double Brutal”
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release Date: 9/29/2009
Genre: Actioncore
Rating: 3.5/5
I have to admit that I shook my head when I saw the release “Total Brutal” by Austrian Death Machine because I was not too sure what it was all about, and when I realized that it was a parody project by As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis that offered homage to all things Arnold Schwarzenegger, I smiled and said “genius”. Let’s face it, if you have seen any number of Arnold’s movies over the course of your life, you cannot argue their own unique level of “Metal-ness” when it comes right down to it. “Total Brutal” was the “groups” first effort and featured tunes like “Get To The Choppa” and employed some killer riffage and frequent commentary by someone known only as “Ahhnold”. It’s actually quite interesting and entertaining to listen to and should amuse you greatly if you are a Metal fan and a follower of the king of action movies and after a holiday EP was released Tim and Ahhnold would hit the bomb shelters and began formulating a second attack for the project. Such is the release we now hold in our hands called “Double Brutal” which obviously continues their premise and even opts to kick it up a notch. Before one can listen to this, they have to separate themselves from the super serious Death and Thrash Metal that is out there and realize that this project is done with a supreme tongue in cheek vibe and designed to make you laugh out loud and perhaps even offer up your own best Arnold impression as the release plays out. Like its predecessor, “Double Brutal” is using various catch phrases by Arnold from his most famous movies such as “Terminator 2”, “Commando” and “Total Recall”. They also use some of the weirder ones like “Kindergarten Cop” and “Batman & Robin” (where Arnold played Mr. Freeze) and it makes for some very diverse Metal exploring. As you might expect, almost every song is about destruction or maiming of some kind and in case you were wondering, Lambesis plays all instruments across the album and has the occasional guest star on lead guitar where necessary. Highlights of the first CD are “I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots and Your Motorcycle” and “Hey Cookie Monster”, the latter being a song that says if you are going to sing like Cookie Monster you might as well have a song about cookies.
The second CD takes an interesting turn on the whole “band doing covers of other artists” releases which have been coming out in reckless abandon by offering up an ADM version of the apparent standard. The difference with their renditions against the originals is that the founding version never had the assistance and sometimes interference of Ahhnold to bring it up a little bit. Legends such as Judas Priest, Metallica, Megadeth and The Misfits get their smiting when Austrian Death Machine gets a hold of their melodies and trust me you will like these versions if you know what’s good for you. One does not have a lot of time left on this plane if they cross Ahhnold that’s for sure. This part of the release is great for those Metal fans who wondered just how Arnold would sound helping out on a famous Metal track. A booklet is enclosed to give you the means to sing along to the tracks and this also features a ton of photos of Lambesis in various Arnold Schwarzenegger movie character guises as well as a number of photos of Ahhnold himself. The album blasts out of your speakers rather quickly and if it spanned a full thirty minutes across the two CD’s I would be amazed. Its good clean Metal fun and something that I think you will enjoy faster than you will not. I’m sure this would make an amusing live performance project and since we already find Dethklok touring for their albums, could a full fledged tour for Austrian Death Machine be far behind?
Track Listing:
1. Double Ahhnold
2. I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots, and Your Motorcycle
3. Let Off Some Steam Bennett
4. Who Writes the Songs? (The Real Bomb Track)
5. It’s Simple, If it Jiggles it’s Fat
6. See You at the Party Richter
7. Hey Cookie Monster, Nothing is as Brutal as Neaahhh
8. Who Told You You Could Eat My Cookies?
9. Come on Cohaagen, Give Deez People Ehyar
10. Who is Your Daddy, and What Does He 2?
11. Come on, Do it, Do it, Come on, Come on, Kill me, Do It Now
12. Allow Me To Break The Ice
13. Conan, What is Best in Life?
14. Intro to the Intro
15. T2 Theme
16. Hell Bent For Leather (Judas Priest)
17. Time Travel: The Metallica Conspiracy
18. Trapped Under Ice (Metallica)
19. Iron Fist (Motorhead)
20. Recalling Mars
21. I Turned into a Martian (The Misfits)
22. Killing Is My Business and Business Is Good (Megadeth)
23. Tactically Dangerous – Cannibal Commando” (Goretorture)
24. Gotta Go (Agnostic Front)
Official Website: http://austriandeathmachine.com