Energy is the first word I’d use to describe The Kandidate’s previous work “Until We Are Outnumbered” and now this one. Given that the front man is former Hatesphere livewire Jacob Bredahl, this is not surprising. My recollections of “Outnumbered” are of a headbanging Thrashfest. It certainly wasn’t cerebral.
“Facing the Imminent Prospect” shares some similar qualities. The directness and Heavy Metal intensity are there once more. The Kandidate don’t believe in wasting time and march through 11 crunchy numbers in just over 30 minutes. In fact if I have one criticism, it’s that they undersell their technical prowess. On tracks like “Beyond the Mind, Sleep Till You Find” and the Darkane-like “One and Alone”, the absorbing Death-orientated riffage just ends suddenly. It’s as if the band has decided “you’ve heard it now, so let’s stop and move on”. That was disappointing. On the plus side, the guitar and drum work is superlative. It’s deep and designed to run through your blood. It’s quite old school, more measured in parts than its thrashing predecessor, and predates the modern Hardcore Metal style which is so prevalent nowadays. Add to that Bredahl’s murderous utterances and this is a potent album.
I don’t expect the lyrics will win any sort of poetry award: “All is lost, all is gone, dead fucking dead, now nothing left, buried dead and gone, let the maggots have it”. But what a great track – “Let the Maggots Have It” is dark and like the rest of this well-crafted album, sweeping us along on a wave of deeply rhythmic evil. Some of the album is thrashy, while a lot of it is groove-laden and deliberate. It’s all powerful. “Fucked in the Search for Life” contains all the elements and is an exciting piece of Death n Roll, again ending in mid-air. The album ends with a couple of thrashy numbers “Dommedag” and “The Knives Spit”, and adds reinforcement to the idea that The Kandidate will be an excellent live band. It’s lively enough as a recorded work. Unlike Hatesphere, who I sense are just that bit too serious these days, there’s a fun element to this. “Everybody hates everybody, everybody hates everybody, hates everybody”, we’re told on “The Knives Spit” to the point of it going round and round in my head. It’s all quite simple really.
The Kandidate have moved on from their roots and have created a rampant form of rage-driven and technically varied Heavy Metal. It’s classic in its style but delivered uncompromisingly in its own way. I like it.
www.myspace.com/thekandidate
Andrew Doherty
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