Lowbrow
Victims At Play

There's nothing to be done; when faced with musical phenomena, matters of style, and diabolical perseverance that are uncontrollable and inscrutable, one must resign themselves and accept them without attempting to understand them.

Allen West is like the Moon: we always see the same face, constantly featuring the usual riffing work and the routine solos with the distortion lever activated at the end, like the lid shutting on a coffin. It seems this American guitarist has always existed; we often find him in some album or with some new group of old musicians. But the beautiful thing is that we always find the patched-up slow death metal. Then, our brain wants to reject him but ends up giving in once more, giving him a chance.

The Lowbrow appear as a synthesis of Obituary and Six Feet Under, with the open issue of novelty that is non-existent and never will be: finding new riffs in this slowly death metal is challenging, especially for this band that detests speed and lacks the intensity needed to fuse some inspiration taken from the two aforementioned bands. Thus, the Lowbrow present themselves, founded in 1998 not by Allen West but by the former Obituary roadie Rich Hornberger, yet another raspy vocalist from the 90s imitating Chris Barnes, Karl Willets, and even Stephen Gebedy, joined by two members of Nasty Savage, namely the talented guitarist Ben Meyer and drummer Curtis Beeson. The lineup is rounded off by bassist Scott Carino, who will later be replaced by another Nasty Savage member from the "Penetration Point" period, the indomitable Richard Bateman. The friendship that has always linked the members of Nasty Savage with Obituary forms the basis of this project, and everything seems to start under good auspices for fans of the two parent bands. In short, we expect Ben Meyer to modify Allen’s riff setup, inventing something new, otherwise, one might question, “What is Ben Meyer doing in a death metal band, outside of his heavy enclave?"

The debut album “Victims At Play,” released in America in 1999, provides an immediate answer with the opener “Flesh Parade,” a piece that is rather decent, which certainly does not shine with originality. We find the usual slow death metal, followed by a back-and-forth of solos that make our arms drop: it’s hard to tell the difference between one guitarist and another, and it makes one yearn for even the copy-paste solos of Danny Coralles and Eric Cutler, who made their twilight orchestra felt amidst the Autospy quagmire. The album's production is, by coincidence, undertaken by Donald Tardy of Obituary, but does not succeed in reestablishing the doom standards of “The End Complete,” nor the lycanthropic influence of Six Feet Under’s “Haunted.” As the album continues, it goes from bad to worse: the recurring riffs and catatonic Obituary ideas are even highlighted by the drumming of Beeson, similar to Greg Gall's style. There is room for the lively “Disheveled,” which seems inspired by Bolt Thrower’s “Warmaster,” contrasting with indigestible and embalmed tracks like “Restoration” and “Fabrication,” where a riff keeps repeating like the rooms in Natali's “Cube”. The only speed track of the album is “Done In,” probably the most dignified after the opener, characterized at least by a steady and enjoyable electroencephalogram, while the album's bottom is hit by “Could State Souls,” which seems to be an outtake from Obituary’s “Back From The Dead.”

What strikes about Lowbrow, though, is the moniker: “Lowbrow Art, also known as Pop Surrealism, is an art movement born in the late Seventies in the Los Angeles area among the circles revolving around underground comic magazines, punk music, and other Californian subcultures” (www.adgblog.it). In the online Urban Dictionary, I found this translation: “of humble nature.” Are our five deathsters trying to demonstrate modesty? Or are they referring to the low profile of the musical proposal? A mystery.

From the band's official website, it is learned that the album manages to sell 12,000 copies worldwide, about one-tenth of Morbid Angel’s “Covenant”: sales sufficient to publish a follow-up in 2001, namely “Sex, Violence, Death.” Subsequently, the Lowbrow remain on standby, and Allen West returns to the resurrected Obituary for the release of “Frozen In Time” in 2005. And the bandwagon starts again.