Spineshank
The Height of Callousness

THE REVIEW

It is a pleasure for me to review one of my favorite bands: Spineshank.
The year is 2000 and their second studio effort and first hit arrives: "The Height of Callousness" forcefully distances itself from their debut "Strictly Diesel" from 1998, which paid too much of a heavy tribute to Fear Factory. Here, the band, confidently aware of its potential, unleashes all of its creativity, crafting a very personal and at times irresistible work.
Here, there's energy and anger, a lot of it... one really wonders who these four guys are mad at or what wrongs they have suffered, but there is also a lot of melody and atmosphere: the two sides of the same coin that modern metal has, are here presented more than honestly. Energy and anger, as I mentioned before, yes, and immediately thrown in your face with the opening "Asthmatic" and the title track: a cascade of electric and electronic discharges, the furious voice of Jhonny Santos, stop & go, and all the other famous ingredients of the modern sound are present here and inserted, in contrast to their debut, with more judgment and precision, never haphazardly.

Being versatile is a constant imperative that makes the album a complete cocktail, a mix of elements wisely placed in a tracklist that is always varied and never boring: "Synthetic" could easily have been written by Orgy, "Cyanide 2600" by Static-X, "Asthmatic" by Fear Factory, yet they are interpreted by Spineshank in a wise and very personal way.
Special mention for the electric synth-pop of "Play God", "Transparent" and "New Disease," in addition to the tracks already mentioned above in a truly excellent collection!
And then you may wonder: "But why not 5?"... simple, because they will prove they can do even more three years later.