Upon reading the name Deathcrush I expected devastating death metal, but this fairly unique Norwegian construct featuring Linn Nystadnes, Vidar Evensen and Pelle Bamle (with no revealed assigned instrumental duties) rather belong to mid-to-late 80s with the clear synth/pop of early Depeche Mode or Eurythmics, on one hand, and to the 90s industrial of Ministry or alternative punk rock of Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson, on the other, with some Nirvana/Hole grunge influences thrown in.

Most of the good stuff comes early on be it the opening "Ego" strongly reminiscent of Eurythmics’ "Sweet Dreams" and Marilyn Manson’s "Antichrist Superstar", the heavily "Filth Pig" Ministry "PushPushPush" or the very distorted electronic synth/wave industrial "Khmer Rich" recalling Prong’s "Controller", those last two some of the heaviest moments. And then it gets progressively less exciting as the album enters the second half.

Quite simply, the formula gets old quick. "Dumb" may exemplify excellent and complex drum patterns but its Prodigy-meets-Limp Bizkit computerized rhythms do nothing to shake off the feeling that Deathcrush is a one trick pony which the boring "Filthy Sweet" only affirms. "Trust Me" is not much better but I did pick up the interesting Depeche Mode "Pipeline" way the track ends. Fortunately, "Daemon" experiments with a Mercyful Fate/King Diamond guitar sound for probably the most metal sounding track, and the album ends with a catchy "State Of The Union", where, even though the track is listed as being over 24 minutes in length, it practically ends at a 4:20 mark and a long silence follows until the 23:11 mark at which point senseless computer/synth/vocal noise recalling the beginning/end of Anthrax’s "Sound Of The White Noise" album finally and definitely ends the proceedings. The final impression is: why oh why not more metal in "Megazone"?

I said that this alternative/punk rock/synth/pop/industrial affair was different, in my email exchange with main man editor Andrea, and my careful study of "Megazone" did not dispel that feeling. The formula may get old quick but, on this, their debut full length, the Norwegians are onto something unique which, with a lot of hard work, experimentation and more metal, may bring forth fruit to amaze, satisfy, pioneer and hopefully usher in a new genre of the already heavily decentralized heavy metal music, the sort of metal for the XXII-nd Century even before its time.

http://www.deathcrush.no/