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Landing in the same week that Sky TV launched their ‘Sky Dystopia’ movie channel, and a week after Warner Brothers finally released the innovative first two ‘Mad Max’ movies in mind-blowing glorious 4K UHD, L.A. industrial-metallers 3TEETH deliver their long-awaited new album ‘EndEx’, and the collapse of modern civilization has never sounded better.
Coming four years after their acclaimed ‘Metawar’ album, ‘EndEx’ has been a long time coming, but the end result is worth every minute of those four years and the patience of 3TEETH main man Alexis Mincolla – and the resistance to rushing an album out while the world was on hold during Covid – has paid off with an album that more than holds its own against ‘Metawar’. In fact, some might argue that ‘EndEx’ actually tops ‘Metawar’ and is the five-piece’s strongest album to date. Although with the touch of ‘DOOM’ composer Mick Gordon running through the album, that “five piece” could easily read “six piece”.
Opening with the slow, sludgy, pulsing beats of ‘Xenogenesis’ – interspersed with sudden explosions of shrieking vocals from Mincolla, and razor-sharp riffage from Chase Brawner – this is the aural equivalent of John Carpenter tripping out of his skull, with the Guzzoline refinery of ‘Mad Max 2 – The Road Warrior’ working flat out in the background. In places, the eery, haunting spoken-word vocals from Mincolla will freak out anyone who listens to music late at night through a decent pair of cans; dark atmospherics are very much the order of the day. With multiple vocal styles and different tones, Mincolla puts in a schizophrenic performance; with the genius-titled ‘Acme Death Machine’ highlighting his euphoric lighter vocals as much as his harsh. His performance is run a close second by the stellar output from Nick Rossi on drums. ‘Slum Planet’ deals with the over-consumption that is all too prevalent in today’s society and the mixture of hypnotic tribal drumming from Rossi and Mincolla’s mega-phone rant is explosive – this one is going to be a total rager when it’s played live, as will the turbo-charged ‘What’s Left’.
What makes 3TEETH perhaps stand out from the rest of the pack is that they never forgo the hooks in the music. Even a song as relentless as ‘What’s Left’ has hooks by the bucketload, ditto the Rammstein-tinged throbs of ‘Merchant of the Void’ which might just have a Skrillex extended mix waiting once he decides to get back in the ring. ‘ALI3N’ is a total mindfuck and not for anyone whose taste stops at vanilla; nausea-inducing at full volume, and part video-game soundtrack, part acid-house underground rave, the end result is perhaps something that Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty might come up with if they ever decide to resurrect The KLF (they won’t) and create new music with The Shamen.
‘Plutonomicon’ is a real slow-burning moment that has several changes in direction with the full-on assault on the senses at 03:04 minutes bordering on Cradle of Filth territory and Nick Rossi more than earns his crust on this one. The poor guy must have been exhausted and crawled out of the studio after recording his parts. While the main standout moment on ‘EndEx’ changes frequently, depending on the mood, ‘Scorpion’ is pretty hard to beat. The Middle Eastern background vocals are dizzying, the beats crushing, and the vocals unsettling in places. So much going on that it will make your head spin. And just as the listener is coming back down to earth, 3TEETH drops the dreamy ‘Drift’, which in reality, could just as easily be found in an Indie movie as it could be licensed to Netflix for a montage scene in their next big-budget action movie.
Ending with a wry wink from Alexis Mincolla on the pulsing cover of Tear For Fears ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ – which works seamlessly in the harsh and unforgiving environment that ‘EndEx’ is set in – 3TEETH have created a modern-day industrial classic that is sure to find itself in many end-of-year best-of polls. Hopefully, the band will be able to tour the album overseas and regain the momentum gained from their incendiary performances opening for Ministry back before the world stopped turning.
Available now via Century Media.
Review – Dave
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