C-187 - Collision
Pestilence were probably Europe’s most underrated death metal band ever. In times when the genre was still wild and crazy, the Dutch visionaries experimented already with synth guitars and jazz rock, which appalled an audience which back in the early Nineties wasn’t ready for such a mindtrip yet. More than ten years after the band’s demise, their über-guitarist Patrick Mameli is back with his new project, where he is helped out by drum legend Sean Reinert who played with prog death bands Cynic and Death, by bassist Tony Choy who used to be in Cynic too and also in Atheist, and vocalist Tony Jelencovich who left his mark in the more rocking bands B-Thong and Transport League.
C-187 is of course a progressive band. How could it be any different with this kind of people involved? But don’t expect anything you have ever heard before. Mameli must have watched one cop show too many, because the band’s image is all about crime, gang wars, violence and the likes. Even the band name used the American code for homicide.
Jelencovich is still a guarantee for raw vocals, and when he’s not screaming, he is moaning through the lyrics. The music works as a backdrop for his sick performance, crossovering between gangsta hardcore, extreme metal and… fusion jazz rock. If you think this is bound to fail, you may not be entirely wrong, but you have to admit that this genre has never been elaborated before. At times C-187 sound as if jazz guitarist Allan Holdsworth were teaming up with Biohazard. Combining thus the sheer progressive with the dumb brutality of street rock, C-187 can claim to have created a unique album, which can’t be said too often about recent rock albums.
I will give it a generous nine out of ten, because I don’t want to be beaten up by the grim looking band members. Kidding aside, Collision is an utterly original album that will certainly not create a new trend, it’s just too bold on its outlook, but it feels really good that there are still people out to innovate the rock’n’roll circus.