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Attila

Chaos

Written by: PP on 13/01/2017 11:21:25

Is there a band in heavy music right now so deliberately trying to be as stupid and confrontational as possible than Attila? Fronted by what most consider to be a giant douche of a singer whose hunger for fame is only second to his gigantic ego, a magnetism to controversy itself, the entirety of seventh album "Chaos" is spent on sufficiently massaging his ego through lyrics that are juvenile at best, horrific at worst. Or how else would you classify his defiant "Public Apology" to us for his past behaviour and comments:

"I want every single one of you to know that I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. I am so sorry...sorry that you're a little bitch! You want apologies, well fuck you! [...] Fuck your shit, I stay sick. If you don't like it, you could suck this dick. I say cunt, I say bitch. You motherfuckers get offended by anything.

While the band's early work primarily evolved around deathcore and metalcore, the new material as of late has been far more expansive stylistically speaking. It still ridicules traditional metal constructs, but now freely roams in rap metal ("Moshpit"), arena metal ("Bulletproof" could've been on a Disturbed record), and even straight up rock'n'roll in places ("Rise Up"). No convention is sacred as the band combine soothing flutes with guttural growling, annoying screech screaming, rapping, monotone breakdowns, and much more. All of that on album opener "Ignite", by the way.

The confrontational attitude is omnipresent in the lyrics, which as you can imagine, are jammed with low brow swearwords and discussion about how awesome the singer is ("Say what you want, but nothing can stop me now." or "Ohhh shit, wake up motherfuckers, you are either with us or against us!"). So much of your opinion on Attila is likely to be decided on that alone.

It could be that the entire persona of singer Chris Fronzak is a caricature designed to attract as much controversy as possible in a cynical plan to boost sales, or it could be that the entire band belongs under the tongue-in-cheek category. However, the seriousness of the music and the aggressive lyrics suggest otherwise than, say, The Hell, which is very obviously a joke all the way through.

But even if you ignore the stupidity of the record and attribute it all to a joke, the record is still ridiculously bad. Rap metal went out of fashion around the time Limp Bizkit popularized the style (well, Body Count still delivers, but that's something different), and the arena metal songs aren't that good. Plus there's plenty of filler in between. That makes "Chaos" an entertaining record from a comical viewpoint but certainly not a critic's darling.

Download: Bulletproof, Public Apology, Moshpit, Legend
For the fans of: Limp Bizkit, The Hell, Emmure, Chelsea Grin, Attack! Attack!
Listen: Facebook

Release date 04.11.2016
Nuclear Blast / Sharptone Records