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HARDWARES

VILE

Rare Tracks

(Hammerheart)

Reviewed by : Greg Pratt
Rating : 7.0

Heh, well, that band name and album name pretty much sum up what yer getting yerself into here, and the 7.0 confirms it: a slightly exhausting 15-song collection of rare death metal tracks from California mid-to-upper-tier bruisers VILE. Tunes like 'Path To Incineration' totally shred, as does most of the band's death metal, which on this collection is sometimes tech, sometimes straight-up Floridian, and sometimes a touch melodic (there's even a live AT THE GATES cover to drive that last poi...—hey, wake up!). Of course, it being an album called Rare Tracks, you know that the production qualities are going to be distractingly all over the map; check out these guys' last album, Metamorphosis, for a more focused and smooth example of what they're capable of (or their earlier material if you prefer it even more brutal and less classy). Good band, but a release for diehards only. Which you already surmised from that album name, though, right? Talk about functional.