When I first heard New York’s Biolich, I can honestly say I wasn’t impressed with the music they were recording. The production was awful; every demo had the shitty bumble-bee-in-a-box guitar tone, bad drum sound and ridiculously bad vocals. When their bassist offered to send me their new three song promo, I wept a little inside, not really wanting to listen to another muffled bundle of crap, but at the same time not really wanting to hurt his feelings by saying "No, your band is horrible." He’s a little sensitive, you know. Anyway… needless to say I accepted his offering of prhomo material, but declined the other offering of late night spooning, complete with reach around. After swallowing my bile and taking a deep breath, I actually listened to the new Biolich material, and, I must say, Danny, start reaching and tugging! It’s amazing what a decent production can do for a band, and this statement has never been more evident until the music hit my ears. Gone were the bumble bee guitar sounds, replaced with a thicker, meatier tone, the drums sound sharp and clear and the vocals no longer sound like a microphone was crammed into the starving singer’s bellybutton to record the gurgling of his gut rot. The promo actually sounds like music, and really good music at that. Their sound is unique, but they do have a very East Coast approach, reminiscent of the entire Willowtip Records roster, but with an almost European melodic flair. The song writing is solid and the delivery is near perfect, the production isn’t top notch, but good enough that you can clearly see their enormous potential. The one track on the album that absolutely floored me was the track that surprised me the most, the instrumental track "Stol Vapre". The center track is by far the most hypnotic thing I’ve ever heard, it’s not angry, it’s not brutal, it’s not violent, it’s very peaceful, very tranquil and is reminiscent of the more calm, tranquil tracks from The Downward Spiral-era Nine Inch Nails, minus the whininess. The strangest thing about the track is that it really doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the material at all, but at the same time is the absolute most perfect companion piece to the music that surrounds it, and the flow from chaos to peacefulness to chaos is perfect. Some people may be put off of the thought of melody mixed in with brutality, but don’t fret, these guys still masturbate to bizarre German pornography while blasting goregrind, and their music is still powerful, just now they’ve included a little something to set themselves apart from everyone else, and for that I applaud them… even if instrumental tracks are a little gay. All I can say is, after having heard just 13 minutes of their material in a cleaner, more polished form, I want more. I want 45 minutes more, an hour more even 10 albums more. I need to sign these guys.

Review byTeufel