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Well here's something different: An instrumental metal CD. The National Cemetery Orchestra, despite the name, is a one man project. Of course, reading that, alarm bells started ringing "drum machine!" and yep, he used that. It shows here and there... I'm not a big fan of drum machines, although I can forgive using them on a CD (but never in a live performance.) Anyway, back to the CD, it's hard to categorize this music as it doesn't adhere to a specific genre - I hear heavy, I hear speed/thrash, and there's even some death metal sounds in there. Quite interesting actually. I guess that was necessary though, because it's not exactly easy to keep the listener interested in 49 minutes of instrumental metal.

I'm really undecided on this, as this is a very unequal CD. Some tracks are just boring, with the keyboards really overdone, while some other tracks are pretty catchy. Some of the keyboard effects are REALLY annoying, I just can't stand them. I wonder that was the goal here. Same goes for the guitar sometimes. That's too bad, because on tracks where keyboards are less present, the stuff is actually pretty good.

Overall, this is very different from anything I've heard before. I can't say I like or dislike it, every time I listen to it my opinion changes. Hence the (absence of) rating. I think it's something worth getting at least for the listening experience, and make your own mind. I think almost everyone will find something to like in this. No web site, but e-mail at xinek@aol.com for information on getting this interesting, yet perplexing CD.