Ten years since the release of Triple Brutal, Austrian Death Machine is back with another Schwarzenegger inspired set of metalcore tunes in Quad Brutal.
Vocalist Tim Lambesis (As I Lay Dying) started Austrian Death Machine as a side project back in 2008 with Total Brutal that featured the classic “Get to the Choppa”, a track streamed over 2 million times on Spotify. Double Brutal followed shortly after and somewhere between that album and Triple Brutal in 2014, Tim abused steroids and hired a hitman to kill his wife, which made the release of Triple Brutal in 2014 on April Fool’s Day seem a bit like a bad joke. Triple Brutal was heavily if not all crowdfunded and proceeds were publicly promised to go to charity, so at least there was that. For a side project , this one was always rather ambitious, essentially blending the music of As I Lay Dying with some thrash elements and campy lyrics based on the films and often quotes from the films of Arnold Schwarzenegger. In an interview, Lambesis once described the project as “an outlet of pure testosterone and stupidity” and that really seems to fit. ADM has played select shows in the past and I was able to catch one sometime around 2008 and it was everything you could hope it would be. I see there are some EU dates in May of 2024 scheduled, so those may be some fun shows to check out if you get a chance.
For Quad Brutal, Tim produced, engineered and mixed the songs leaving Mike Kalajian with mastering duties. The overall sound is heavy and dark and more “brutal” perhaps than the earlier efforts which seemed cleaner in overall sound. Guest appearances abound on the album and perhaps the most notable to me at least were Dany Lambesis (Tim’s wife), Angel Vivaldi, and the band Bleeding Through.
Honestly, in general I find the album takes itself way too seriously and lacks the sense of humor that made the earlier albums enjoyable. For me it’s as if As I Lay Dying just wrote a new album and added silly lyrics. From a style perspective there is some variety in the approaches and some good moments like the clean vocals on “No Pain, No Gain” that really help tie the song together. “Conquer” is the first track Dany Lambesis makes an appearance on and her vocals are a great match and pretty similar to Tim’s screamed vocals in the song that reminded me of something from Frail Words Collapse. The drums on “Judgment Day” are certainly impressive and the thrash-like crossover of “Everyone Pities the Weak”. The songs on the album are filled with great metal but it all seems familiar in some way.
As I was listening to Quad Brutal and finished it, Spotify started playing Total Brutal and that’s when I realized the tongue-in-cheek humor and cleaner production were what made Austrian Death Machine interesting. Quad Brutal brings the metalcore in abundance and the guest musicians and vocalists add considerable depth to the tracks, but as a concept, Austrian Death Machine seems to be getting less interesting with each passing album.
Written by John Jackson
Rating: 6/10
Tracklist
- No Pain, No Gain (feat. Craig Golias, Angel Vivaldi)
- Conquer (feat. Dany Lambesis, Clayton King)
- Hey Bro Can You Spot Me (feat. Craig Golias, Alarcon)
- Judgment Day (feat. Ov Sulfur)
- Everyone Pities the Weak (feat Dany Lambesis)
- Don’t Be Lazy (feat. Craig Golias)
- Get Down (feat Craig Golias)
- Destroy the Machines (feat. Dany Lambesis)
- MeatGrinder (feat. Dany Lambesis)
- I Never Quit (feat. Rob Bailey, Craig Golias, Bleeding Through)
Band Members
Tim Lambesis – guitars, bass, vocals
Mark McDonald – guitars
Cory Walker – guitars
Lead guitars – Angel Vivaldi, Dylan Burcombe, Clayton King, Joey Alarcon
Guest vocalists – Craig Golias, Ricky Hoover, Dany Lambesis, Rob Bailey
Release Date: Feb. 23rd. 2024
Record Label: Napalm Records
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Video for “No Pain, No Gain”
Video for “Don’t Be Lazy”
Video for “Judgment Day”