REQUIEM

The cover art: a broken Gordon Freeman and the eternally fleeing guy with the briefcase from Half-Life, set against the backdrop of what remains of Mother Earth after an alien invasion. That's a joke, of course -- the cover actually carries a quite overt social message. Environmental pollution by corporations, worship of the green (as in greenbacks) devil, and humanity's inevitable death -- I've lost count of how many foreign bands are preoccupied with this subject matter, yet things remain as they are: democracy marches triumphantly across nations, mega-corporations squeeze the planet's last juices, golden rivers flow in one direction and sewage rivers in the other. It's a shame, but it seems musical methods of influence just don't work. And wouldn't it be great, you have to admit, if you sang a song about environmental pollution -- not just sang it, but sang it in fierce growls, wove in mighty hundred-ton-heavy guitar parts, framed it all with the most vicious rhythm section -- and just like that, things started moving. But no, it doesn't work that way. Maybe we need to add a little more heaviness? Maybe a little more ferocity and fury? Though where could you possibly add more... Our Czechs have everything in order and then some on every one of these counts. So all that's left is to hope not for quality but for quantity. This is the band's third full-length, so let us wish that the guys' musical ideas last exactly until the world changes for the better -- and only then can they start playing some disco. Until that happens -- brutal, brutal, and once more brutal!