Album Reviews : Cyberne – Law

Japan suffers from an unfortunate stereotype; people see it as a place where strange and crazy things happen, where there is strange fashion and stranger behavior. In a nutshell, many people view Japan as a crazy place. Cyberne, on their debut album Law, do little to dispel this idea. The album is half an hour of pure intense musical insanity.

The album’s minute long opener “Jazzling” opens with some tempo changing interplay, before the muffled screaming vocals dive in and the whole band has a musical seizure, shifting between tempos, with staccato start stop drum patterns and schizophrenic guitar lines. And just as soon as the madness has started, it is over; but there’s no time to catch your breath as the pummeling assault of “Unchain” blasts out of the speakers and the band’s guitarists show that they know their way around the neck, alternating between arpeggios and power chord based riffs.  “Unchain” continues to pummel the listener, until a brief second long pause is reached, and Cyberne pull off a change that will make anyone’s jaw hit the floor: a guitar solo breaking through a solid rhythm as the band moves back into madness.  “Unchain” is only three and half minutes, and Cyberne cram at least 16 different riffs into the completely fluid and abrasive song.

The band continues to beat the listener senseless with his own speaker, as each song is pummeling and extreme, crammed to the brim with tempo changes and riffs. There are musical changes no one would expect, and the band doesn’t just shift through fast and awkwardly timed power chords, there are moments of dissonance and rolling staccato basslines, fills of sharp penetrating chords. Mid tempo songs like “Surf” provide a nice change of pace, but are still ripe to burst with riffs and crazy. And yes, there are moments of harmonization on this album. Awesome moments of harmonization.

The whole band is on the top of their game, from the rolling mid tempo crashes of “Vabel” to  the rocking atonal soloing on “Law”, Cyberne show that they aren’t going to have anyone tell them how to rock out. Playing at break-neck Margudergrind –esque speeds, with all the crazy tempo changing of early Mastodon and Ruins (the Japanese band, not the Australian death metal one), Cyberne have stitched together a frankenstein of musical insanity. Any fan of technical, abrasive, in-your-face metal requires a copy of this album. 10/10    

Band: Cyberne
Album: Law
Year: 2009
Genre:  math/noise
Label: Basement Apes
Origin: Japan
http://cyberne.zombie.jp/

Track listing:
1. Jazzling
2. Unchain
3. Zodd
4. Vabel
5. Law
6. Surf
7. Gift
8. CxSxk
9. Hell Fund
10. Muethai