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SUPERMODEL TAXIDERMY - “At What Cost?”
SUPERMODEL TAXIDERMY - “At What Cost?”
by Thor
A few weeks ago, I received an album to review called “At What Cost?” by a band named SUPERMODEL TAXIDERMY. Now, I prefer to go into these things cold, so unless it’s a band I’m familiar with, I like to know as little as possible before pressing ‘PLAY’. But I also own two eyeballs and a brain, so—based on the name—I was expecting to hear some gurgling gutturals, some blast beats, some slams… You know, some SUPERMODEL TAXIDERMY-sounding shit?
So, imagine my total surprise when what poured out of my headphones and into my earholes wasn’t brutal death metal at all, but rather some of the purest crossover thrash I’ve heard in ages. Holy shit!
This trio of Canucks’ entire presentation skews much closer to that of the DAYGLO ABORTIONS, early D.R.I. and early SUICIDAL TENDENDIES—they even cover SUICIDAL’s “Subliminal”—than it does bands like MUNICIPAL WASTE or IRON REAGAN. And while they don’t eschew modern influences entirely, by making what’s old new again, SUPERMODEL TAXIDERMY has pulled off a neat trick by sounding so relatively fresh.
Fortunately, for me, I love every band mentioned above, so, the whole mishmash hits me right in my moshy soul.
SUPERMODEL TAXIDERMY’s shtick is excellent. The vocals are 85% O.G. hardcore punk-style with the remaining backing vocals employing death metal-style guttural aggression. The guitarist’s gain isn’t set to Nuke which goes a long way toward grounding the entire production in an aesthetic that accurately approximates what was happening at the birth of “crossover”, yet the performances are tight by modern standards and the album has a huge, modern low end. It’s like playing an Atari 2600 with a PS5 controller.
Songs like “Exorcist for Beer”, “Blood Painted Dash”, and “Lipstick” run the hardcore punk/thrash metal gamut, from party anthems to horror tales, to the band’s metal-fueled love for scene chicks. SUPERMODEL TAXIDERMY’s “At What Cost?” drips Gen-X punk and metal sensibilities. If that’s your bag, go get it. You won’t be disappointed.
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