The vaguely doomy opening of this record had me fairly optimistic for what was to follow, but the crazy blast beats and screamin' and hollerin' that soon followed let me know that all is not what it seems with these cats. PREMONITIONS OF WAR has the entire grind/thrash/death spectrum covered. This band switches gears so fast, it gave me an epileptic fit. Most of these songs barely scratch the two minute barrier, which, given the complexity of the tracks, doesn't leave any time for them to settle into anything particularly memorable. Forget about settling into a groove, by the time your foot is tapping, the band is already onto the next three ideas.

"I'd Settle for Sleep" is clearly the standout, actually breaking the six minute mark! This is the one track that that feels like it actually builds to something, rather than the band just trying to impress us with their chops, speed, and low attention span. After ripping it up for a while not unlike the rest of the record, the track devolves into a techno/industrial wasteland of ambient noise.

While this record is nothing I would listen to in my everyday life, the mercifully short tracks and moments of invention make it not entirely offensive to my music-listening sensibilities either. The performances are sharp, and production is very raw, even for this genre of music. This is the perfect soundtrack for the ADD generation, so go buy it for that nephew you don't like.

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OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/thefuckingwar

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