Ten years have passed since Austrian Death Machine’s third album, “Triple Brutal”, which makes perfect sense since 2014 was the year that Tim Lambesis pleaded guilty to the known charges against him and his incarceration began. Now, 2024 finds his side-project quite different from the past to the point where I don’t quite understand why he decided to release this work.
So, for those who don’t know, Austrian Death Machine began as a solo act of Tim who brought various guests to make music influenced by the titan Arnold Schwarzenegger. The titles and lyrics were from his classic films, with one person on each record mimicking his voice and dropping lines every now and then. The music had several elements of Tim’s main band, As I Lay Dying, as well as several thrash and crossover influences. But here, he seems to be trying something different.
First, the music is clearly based on As I Lay Dying to the point that I would like to hear some things on their next album and not here. Secondly, the Arnold references are long gone. We don’t listen to someone imitating him as often, the songs are mostly influenced by gym and bodybuilding, there’s generally not that relaxed and upbeat vibe. It’s as if Tim decided to do something much more “serious” than before, completely changing the DNA of this project. So, he might as well have made another band but whatever.
In conclusion, I expected “Quad Brutal” to be different. I can’t say I was crazy about the three previous full-length releases, unlike As I Lay Dying which I love, but at least they served their purpose. You listened to them, you had a good time, you laughed, that’s it. This one is just a good metalcore album, with just two (maybe three) excellent songs, which redefines the band into something relatively different from what we’ve been used to so far.
