Need to Control
Need to Controlis the surprisingly rare death-metal CD that maneuvers around the genre's mounting pile of clichés. Its songs are bound in Kevin Sharp's guttural vocals and the blur of Rich Hoak's circular drumming, energized by Dan Lilker's rumbling bass, and given character by Gurn's odd guitar lines, but from there everything flies into new territory. The band has faith that anything it touches will turn to metal. Representative of the unconventional approach employed by the band, "Godplayer" includes didgeridoo. All the right sounds are applied to all the right causes, pressurizing metal until it seeps experimental noise at the seams.--Ian Christe