The Seduction - Betrayed   

Local lads belt out a winner

The Seduction is a new band straight out of Melbourne. They sound like a runaway bullet train supercharged into a metaphor of ridiculous proportions. This is a good thing.

The adjectives alone you need to describe the sound this band makes could get you sued by a disabled defamation group. It is, after all, crazy. There seems to be a misprint on the cover, listing the tracks in a different order than how they appear on the album. It's like they're trying to fuck with the listener even when the record isn't playing! That's dedication.

This appears to be their debut, but it is so well produced and performed that I'm almost embarrassed that I hadn't heard of them before. If these guys can pull off live these songs anything like what's on the record, provided they get some high profile support slots, they will be huge.

At various points, the music reminds of the finest in the worlds of metal, hardcore and indie rock. There are progressive elements to the songs beyond the frantic pace and off-kilter rhythms. Drowned is like Deftones met Tool while the song Corpus Christi, barely two minutes long, has nods to Nine Inch Nails, Helmet, Pantera and Dillinger Escape Plan.

The album ends with a nice little instrumental track called Death of a Cowboy, just an ominous distorted guitar playing indie rock chords. It presages the next offering from the band, which is awaited with baited ears, if that's possible.

Of course, there's no melody, either in the manic vocals or the psychotic guitars and overpowering drums. Sure, a lot of the songs are interchangeable and if you aren't paying attention to the track numbers changing on the CD player, you might just think it's all one big riff-a-thon, but the Seduction is a band of freebased power. A bunch of kids who didn't care about what scene they belonged to or which bands to be seen to like wrote this music. They had reputable tastes and a no bullshit policy; and it shows. Now these kids are going to rule the world, probably.

With the impact and energy of Dillinger Escape Plan and the schizophrenic changes of Converge, The Seduction is a band to look out for. This is a professional and listenable album from a band that blurs the perhaps now imaginary borders between metal and hardcore.

(Trial And Error Records/Stomp Distribution)