Austrian Death Machine – Quad Brutal

 

I remember the mid 70ies, when my, at that time, favourite band released six studio and two live albums within three years. Nowadays we are far away from that. In this particular case we talk about nearly ten years since the last release. Rumours have been going round for quite a while until they became true and real. So here we are with the review of As I Lay Dying front man Tim Labesis’ solo-project Austrian Death Machine and its latest opus “Quad Brutal”.

Quad Brutal

No Pain No Gain

The opener features Craig Golias and Angel Vivaldi. Some robotic speech underlined by a swinging guitar intro welcomes us to the testosterone driven world of Terminator. The direction of the whole album is quite clear, brutal guitars, distorted vocals, powerful drums on the fast lane of the motorway of life. Check the video and you know what I mean.

Conquer

We don’t lose any speed with the second song, which features Hellbørn and Clayton King of So It Begins. Instead, we speed up to an infernal guitar sound. It is pure adrenaline pumped through our veins. I feel the urge to get up and jump around, I can’t sit still. At least I need to do something!

Hey Bro Can You Spot Me?

We continue with neck breaking speed. Tim and his guest musicians Craig Golias and Joey Alacron of Wolves At The Gate do everything to overtake themselves! Nevertheless, we hear a quite catchy background choir during the chorus. Can you spot it?

Judgement Day

That’s a very Terminator-themed title. And indeed, it feels like a judgement day, by Ricky Hoover of Ov Sulfur, who supports Tim Labesis on this amazing track. Machine gun drums control the dangerous intro, speed up and the harsh vocals roar out what is obvious. Armageddon has come, there is no escape from your faith. The video had been released just three days before the album, so here it is.

Everybody Pities The Weak

We once again hear Hellbørn. I am not quite sure, if the lyrics and title still count in a modern world full of selfishness. In the end, “Everybody pities the weak, but jealousy’s a privilege you have to earn” as the chorus suggests. By the way, the guitar work beside outstanding harsh vocals is excellent on this powerful and fast track!

Don’t Be Lazy

Decide yourself, if Craig Golias is lazy, at least the guitarist isn’t. He must nearly break his fingers with this extreme speed. So many fast notes at the same time. I also like the short spoken almost rapped interlude of the first half of the song and the extended guitar solo. Check the really funny video:

Get Down

Together with sirens and scream, we get down supported by Craig Golias as on the previous track. It is an infernal song, overwhelming and overtaking. There is no speed limit for Terminators on testosterone, No, never. Accept it or get down and never up again.

Destroy The Machines

We will also feature the video of this song. Well-known guests this time are Hellbørn, and Joey Alacron of Wolves At The Gate. Once again Tim proofs his passion for Terminator and powerful guitar lines. There is no time to take a breath, it is about time to destroy the machines before they take control and destroy our world.

Meat Grinder

Everybody knows, what a meat grinder does! This is the maybe fastest meat grinder and song of the album ever. It is fast enough to be over after just exciting 151 seconds.

Slower bands would have needed one minute more for the whole song… Once again it features none less than Hellbørn. And if you still don’t know who Hellbørn are or better is, she is Tim’s wife Dany Lambesis. They married in 2022, belated congratulations by the way, well done!

I Never Quit

The closer of the album doesn’t stand back. Guests Kill Rob Bailey, Craig Golias, and Brandon Richter of Bleeding Through and a constant firework of crashing guitars do their best to leave you with the desire for more. “Wait a minute, slow it down” and restart the album once again.

How to judge Quad Brutal?

It is difficult to judge an album like this. Almost ten years have gone by since the last release thus expectations might be too big. Times have changed since then. The world is a different one now. The Terminator films are “Golden Oldies” now and a new one is not in sight. It would be very unfair to compare Quad Brutal with the previous three albums, which were released in a row between 2008 and 2014 and the last release of As I Lay Dying.

It does what it should do

I prefer to look at it as a completely independent album. And that is how it works. It would be the perfect soundtrack on a racetrack or to pump up your muscles in the gym. I believe, it was written and produced to fulfill exactly this role. Nothing more, nothing less. Thus, in its way it is a perfect album which does its job. Go for it if you like very fast, very brutal guitar riffs and harsh vocals or spend a lot of time in your local gym. AND don’t take everything too serious 😉

Short facts:

 

Save the dates of the tour with support by Distant and Ghost Iris

---

Online:

Austrian Death Machine

Please buy merch and physical music or downloads from the bands official sources and don’t stream it for free because it steals your artists’ income.

---

Proofreading by DerminBoad

Photo Credit: Dylan Gould