Since I first heard the band’s Exotic Sense Decay EP last year, I have been greatly anticipating hearing more from the chaotic group of enraged death-grinders, Circle Of Dead Children. The EP contained 7 tracks and 12:21 of some of the most diversified and unique brutal music to hit my ear drums in some time, and their major label debut, The Genocide Machine, picks up where the last album left off serving up 17 tracks in 28:37. If I had not been aware of the band’s style prior to hearing the new album I would have assumed the band played a simple brand of generic gore-grind, however the album is quite different from what people would normally expect from a grind band. The group has found a way to fuse together elements of their favorite styles of music to fit into one original entity. The music contains elements of hardcore, grind, crust, death, doom and even a touch of black metal and moments of melody are intertwined with hate filled fits of pure aggression. Vocally Joe Horvath reminds me a great deal of Maynard Moore, formerly of Neuraxis, with his varied vocal approach, going from deep sickening guttural gurgle, to high pitched scream to mid-level growl effortlessly, yet with each level sounding so different from the last you almost swear the group has two or three vocalists. Unfortunately the promo copy did not come with the lyrics, however, Joe informed me they are in the same vein as the lyrics of Exotic Sense Decay and if this is the case they would be well worth the time to sit down and flip through and stimulate your brain as his lyrics are surprisingly thought provoking and interesting. The highlights of the album include the opening track "Migration", which has been available for free download for many months and is a great little track, "Cremationism (become the flame)", "Corpses Of Refinement aka The Men Behind The Sun", "Barbarians And Henchmen" and "Wormpaste (bled through the earth)". Like Exotic Sense Decay, there is some filler material which is a bit difficult and irritating to listen to, however it does not distract from the greatness of the remaining tracks. There is some bonus live video footage on the CD-extra portion of the album as the band plays "Two Week Notice" from the new CD and "Pigeon vs Crow" from Exotic Sense Decay. It’s actually pretty hilarious watching this one kid in the front going into some sort of mentally retarded trance as he thrashes about aimlessly and shoves two girls around, one of whom I’m sure is his girlfriend who he dragged along to the show, who look half amused by the goings-on but mostly scared shitless. While none of the tracks from the new CD hit me as hard as "10 fingers (my last 10 minutes)" from Exotic Sense Decay, The Genocide Machine still offers enough sickness to satiate the palate of any true gore fiend, and possibly even stimulate a few brain cells if you take the time to read through the lyrics. As a final notice, I’d like to give a huge thank you out to Melanie at Necropolis who went out of her way to hook me up with a pre-promo advance copy of the CD and has been more helpful in one month at Necropolis than Jon Paris was in his entire tenures at Earache and Necropolis combined.

Review byTeufel