Austrian Death Machine
“Total Brutal”
(Metal Blade)

Are you kidding?!?! I had high hopes for this initially with cover artwork by Ed Repka (Death’s original artist), but that is ADM’s sole saving grace. This is clearly one of those joke bands (actually it's a project written and produced by As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis) normally sent cruelly my way by the likes of Earache. But no, ADM are very real, and very obsessed with Arnie Schwarzenegger, from the vocal narratives to the song titles themselves i.e. ‘Come With Me If You Want To Live (i.e. Terminator), ‘ Screw You Benny (i.e. Total Recall) to ‘If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It’ (i.e. Predator 1). Musically I’d best describe ADM as crossover and whilst there’s no denying the band can play and are great for that (big) party, I doubt if anyone could handle a sequel.

-Shan Siva