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PRIMAL CODE “Opaque Fixation”
PRIMAL CODE “Opaque Fixation”
By Dr. Abner Mality
“Less is more” is the motto carved in stone above the repertoire of many great bands. So it is with Chicago’s PRIMAL CODE, who live up to the promise of their name in the most brutal fashion. They have constructed a tableau of minimalist mid-paced mayhem on “Opaque Fixation”.
Chicago has a history of no-nonsense to the bone death metal. Names like CIANIDE, USURPER, LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR come to mind. PRIMAL CODE is right in that tradition. A three piece centered around ex-INDIAN bassist Will Lindsay, they play raw and basic BOLT THROWER-ed death chug that grabs you by the neck and shakes you like a wet puppy. The riffs they play are indeed “primal” as well as primitive. And very, very effective.
Yet they don’t come across like a total BOLT THROWER clone the way FROZEN SOUL does. There is something unique to PRIMAL CODE here, something unique to Chicago. You can feel it in the pulverizing crush of “Totem”, “Iwi”, “Extinction” and more. It’s deep in the gravelly growls of Gene Marino, who nevertheless remains fully comprehensible instead of the usual mush mouth garble. You can hear it in the tribal caveman drumming of James Farn. This is music that is stripped down but not stripped away. There’s an appeal that goes beyond just “caveman death metal”.
Every track here is rough, primitive and hooky in the extreme. PRIMAL CODE performs the subtle trick of being simple but not simple-minded. Another Chicago band I can get behind 100%.
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