Subject to Change Without Notice is the marriage of all-out sonic assault and the total respect of brevity in an effort to destroy anything in the path. My brains were tapioca and my eardrums numb at the end of this third release from Cleveland's Keelhaul, and while not a pleasurable experience in itself, that's definitely not a negative thing.Hydra Head
Not a great thing, though, as there are moments I could have done without, but this definitely got my head moving in a thrash-like motion again after all these years. There is a sense of humor in these songs—any band that names a song "Carl vs. the 10,000 LB Shadow" must have one—but unlike other bands who are using the metal genre as a punchline, Keelhaul are honest and relentless in their pursuit of aggression. Even though they sometimes let the music extend past its usual short stance to the five or eight-minute-plus mark, there was never a moment where I felt like this music was going on longer than it should. That said, the band's strength is in their instrumentation, not the raging screamed vocals that already sound like fifteen other bands. Not that the vocals are unnecessary or particularly horrid: I just returned for repeat listens more on tracks that did not feature them. Keelhaul are incredibly talented musicians, and every moment on the CD, even those that sound sloppy or disorganized, comes off as an entirely calculated move. The songs all blend together, with nary a moment to come up for air, and I imagine their live show is very similar, with the band catching everyone off-guard by starting with the lights turned up and people still finding their seats or a good place to stand. I used to view hardcore and metal and all their sub-genres (doom, speed, shred, goth, etc.) as dying breeds, where no one was creating anything original for them to maintain themselves. Keelhaul have changed my opinion, and though I was not overwhelmed by the music they made on this record, I would listen to future releases in the hope that they've continued to evolve.
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