### Altar: Red harvest

#### 27/08/09 || Trauma

Somehow, this was in my collection so I’m going to write some thoughts on it. Up until the point of receiving the album, I had neither heard nor heard of this band so I was really, really skeptical. I normally don’t go out of my way to randomly pick out a piece of music before doing some homework, but this I apparently did.

So, I did some homework after the fact and at least found out that these guys were (are?) out of The Netherlands. This is also the last album they made before splitting up. It definitely doesn’t sound like a first-effort or anything. The guys know how to write some good guitar riffs, and the drumming is competent enough. The vocals are hit and miss with me. They’re not bad, but I’ve heard much better out of their own land and the neighbors to the north(east), or maybe it’s the annoying lyrics that mar his actual growl.

Cussing is all well and good, but repeat it many times over the course of one song and it’s just lame, and I don’t mean this real cool band from Sweden. You can be a lot more angry and menacing without repeating it so much. From what I gathered, he’s mostly whining about Christians and bible-pushers. “Fuck your shit, fuck your lies” (or was it life? Fuck the lyrics).

So fuck it, lyrics in metal must be retarded regardless of the penman. What it boils down to then is the guitar, drum, bass (if you’re privileged enough to get to hear it), and vocals. For me, this band has all of those ingredients, just not in an extraordinary way – more like a decent way. They handle everything like they know they’re about to hang the towel.

“Alright guys, we know what the fuck we’re doing, but we also don’t like it anymore. Let’s just go out there and give it our most minimal without sounding like a bunch of retards. On three, ready? One, two, three, DECENCY!“

There are some guitar solos but they aren’t much more than noise. I can listen to one song after the other, so there’s definitely no continuity problems involving my skip button, but I don’t find myself wanting to go through this album anymore than once every blue moon. Which is never. The highest I give this is:

- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Spitzenburg Records
- Website: Altar MySpace
- Band
- Michel Coppens: vocals
- Marcel Verdurmen: guitars
- Richard Ludwig: guitars
- Andre Hemel: bass
- Frank Schilperoort: drums

- Tracklist
- 1. Sick
- 2. The stress factor
- 3. Spikes and pain
- 4. On the throne
- 5. The unbeliever
- 6. Red harvest
- 7. Generation x
- 8. To my friends (RIP)
- 9. Punishment for decency