(Crustcore/ Death Metal) Elitist - Fear In A Handful Of Dust - 2011, MP3, 128-320 kbps

www.myspace.com/dieselnoise

ELITIST have finally released their first full length album after a successful EP and split, and it is just as ‘in your face’ as fans have been promised. The band combines the harsh, buzzing atmosphere of crustcore / sludgecore music with the groove and almost slow, methodical chug of hardcore with a hybrid of black and death metal vocals for some attention grabbing fury. For those looking for slick, well produced music, they may want to turn elsewhere because this is about is underground as one can get. ‘Fear In A Handful Of Dust’ scoffs at the typical style of death or sludgecore and tries to make things as raw as possible, not only in atmosphere through production but also themes as well. According to the band, ‘Fear…’ is their way of alerting listeners about the corruption of politics and the government within the U.S. today and basically unleashing it in the loudest way possible to make people listen. For those who like bands such as KRIEG or PORTAL will probably find the begrudged, harsh atmosphere and sometimes obliterating riffs of this debut album will be well served.
To hear ‘Fear…’ is like stepping into a war zone. There is very little in the room for ambient passages or quiet moments. Listeners will almost always hear the constant shredding of a guitar- fuzzed out and basically overshadowing everything else aside from the vocals- as the main distraction in this wall of sound such on a track like ‘Tower Of Meth’. The drums have that constant machine gun fire tone to them, but often even they are hard to hear with how crushing the atmosphere can be. Vocally, sometimes it takes on a visceral black metal snarl such as with ‘Ivory Shavings Of The Tools Unknown’. Also on a track like this, one can hear faint traces of keyboards in the background and even a bit of a guitar solo amongst the wall of sound, which adds a fraction of melody to the chaos to try to keep some order, but even with that there are parts where everything seems so frantic there is nothing that can be done to save it. Other tracks like ‘Slowly Fucked And Force Fed’ seem to slow down a little bit more, bordering on the depressive black metal genre and feature tortured, deep growls mixed within the snarls. Of course, the slowest track would probably be the first one ‘Burning The Unspoken Gospel’ which crawls like doom metal and features some of the most piercing shrieks and growls ELITIST can muster. As a result, ELITIST create some very terrifying environments that merge some of the heaviest styles in atmospheric metal together that carry an emotional weight just as much as a sonic one.
It is agreeable that ELITIST is not everyone’s cup of tea, though. The music here is thick and sometimes difficult to comprehend. To the untrained ear it may just sound like a bunch of noise but to those who are used to atmospheric laden black and death metal, or even crusted sludge, can come to appreciate that hard work that ELITIST puts into their music. The album retains a modern message but draws on influences that range as far as back as the late 80s death metal in the vein of bands like MORBID ANGEL. ‘Fear…’ make take a few spins to get used to, but behind a hellish sound is a message worth listening to for those who may agree with what ELITIST are trying to convey about their anti-hypocrisy themes.
Written by Colin McNamara.

Joshua Greene - Vocals
Taylor Robinson - Guitar
Nickolis Parks - Drums
Justin Yaquinto - Bass