MANGLED - ANCIENT TIMES - FADELESS
"Let's get mangled" chant the Dutchmen and who are we to argue? Let's get mangled I agree as I listen to the disc in the royal CD player. The story of the Dutch five-piece goes way back to 1989 when the act was just born. Soon come a demo or two, a couple of releases by the American record store Wild Rags and the usual number of obligatory line-up changes - including Fadeless owner Wilko - and we arrive at the band's first full-length featuring ten promising hymns of, what the gang describes as, grave rock. The band could have been Sinister, but instead stops somewhere between there and being pianobotomized. Yup, you guessed it, the putrid reek of keyboards permeates this album even though the members, given their age, should have known better. At least the keyboards are kept to a minimum as the rest of the space is filled with the band concentrating on metal with varying degrees of tempo. From slow to fast and via mid-paced the band hacks at speed/death like seasoned veterans. It is all accomplished if it were not for the you know what. To sum, Ancient Times is an interesting concept with its mixture of Latin and English lyrics rendered funny by the 'Ben Hur' photos in the jacket. Here's to album number two and a more pure form of the same. - Ali "The Metallian"