Though plying the same basic musical style and shtick as the relatively enjoyable 2008 debut, Total Brutal, Tim Lambesis’s (As I Lay Dying) Arnold Schwarzenegger themed metal act has grown somewhat.
First off, professional Arnold impersonator Josh Robert Thompson (The Howard Stern Show, The Late Late Show) now provides the excellent and amusing Arnold quips and skits, and is more involved in some of the songs. The Arnie one liner named songs (now finally culling from Commando and Conan as well as the expected Total Recall, Terminator and Predator films) are a little better. Also, there is an even larger array of guest musicians aiding Lambesis; (Andrew Tapley of The Human Abstract, Rusty Cooley of Outworld, Chris Storey formally of All Shall Perish, Mark MacDonald of Mercury Switch, Buz McGrath of Unearth, Kris Norris formerly of Darkest Hour, James Gericke of Skyline Collapse, Rocky Gray of Living Sacrifice and Jason Suecof of Capharnaum/Crotchduster)
As with the first album, the music is basically short, thrashy simple metalcore songs with Arnold skits in-between and once again, while not mind blowing, its fun and entertaining as a thrash album and the skits are often humorous, especially with Josh Thompson’s more involved and often funny, spot on Arnold banter. After the hilarious opening skit, “Double Arnold”, the album jumps right into the high octane duo of “I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots and Your Motorcycle” and “Let of Some Steam Bennett”, both as enjoyable as Total Brutal’s “Get to the Choppa”. The next highlight is the duo of “Hey Cookie Monster, Nothing is as Brutal as Neaahhh” and the seemingly deathcore parody “Who Told You You Could Eat My Cookies?” where Lambesis (and Arnold) drop some over done arpeggios sweeps and faux breakdowns with uber brutal vocals. “. Come on, Do it, Do it, Come on, Come on, Kill me, Do it Now” is also another pretty solid track and I was stocked to finally see Conan get some love for closer “Conan, What Best in Life?”. Again, none of it is going to change music, but a solid romp of modern metal with some humor thrown in and a pretty unique gimmick.
Making the album Double Brutal is a second 11 track CD of cover songs taken from the Arnold movie soundtracks including the Terminator 2 theme, Judas Priest’s “Hell Bent for Leather”, Metallica’s “Trapped Under Ice”, Megadeth’s “Killing is My Business….and Business is Good”, Motorhead’s “Iron Fist” and a pretty damn cool version of Agnostic Front’s “Gotta Go”. There’s even a cover song of “Cannibal Commando” originally done by an Arnie themed death metal band from Finland called Gortorture. Of note is that ‘Arnold’ actually sings in some of the covers, making for an interesting and funny take on the songs (especially “Trapped Under ice”, “Gotta Go” and The Misfits’ “I Turned into a Martian”).
In all I’m surpised Lambesis has made this shtick work for a second album now and all I can say is “Neeaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhrggghhh”.
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I see a new subgenre emerging. By the way, whoever does their artwork must not understand how guns work. The heads should have bullets sticking in them, not the shells. The illustration would be great if it wasn’t for that glaring problem.
on Oct 8th, 2009 at 07:53I much prefer Arnocorps to this stuff.
on Oct 8th, 2009 at 15:32Haha, Gordeth I thought the same thing. I think it loses its visually appeal then though.
on Oct 9th, 2009 at 14:37Love it. I got the album today and it is awesome. All hail Austrian Death Machine.
on Oct 18th, 2009 at 15:52I felt this isn’t as good as the first, and weirdly enough my friend does a better arnold than either of these guys. But I dont know, the music and spirit just isnt there, hollow feeling.
on Oct 20th, 2009 at 17:09