Whoooaahh!!
Dirty evil Euro-metal time again! If you want cult - The Corroseum will
give you fukking
CULT! It's quite hard to point to the exact quality
that makes FUTURE TENSE's sole vinyl offering so special and what takes
them so much ahead of the competition at the time. Well, His Unholy Satanic
Majesty is as they say, in the detail. Productionwise it's difficult to
place "Condemned.." on a good/bad-scale. In terms of conveying
the feelings of the music and lyrics it's perfect though, mostly thanx
to this haunting, very sublime echo-effect on the guitars, making them
sound like they come out of some mouldy crypt or back-alley, underground
garage club set in the worst neighborhoods of Woerden. Van Drunen's vocals
may not be the sweetest in Rock'n'Roll history, but an irate, screaming
Zeeb Parkes (of WF General) is exactly what Metal in this caliber calls
for. On the spoken parts in the pitch-black, epic Doom-monster "Swords
Of Vengeance" his voice turns total Death/Black Metal and as far
as Metallic innovation goes, these are one of the album's most impressive
moments. The uglybeautiful, spiky logo and the weird, primitive cover
art cannot go unmentioned, allegedly drawn by a local street junkie. Figures.
It's a dynamic record for sure, opening and closing with riveting Speed
Metal, the title track and the aforementioned "Swords.." bringing
on the
Doooohm and the classic, galloping instrumental "La
Quillotine" punching you with a fistful of killer leads in the middle.
Few bands have managed to do such simple, uncatchy-but-fukking-CATCHY
songs. (Perhaps they really
did sell their souls to the horned
one?) The respective debuts of bands like LIVING DEATH, ACID, WARRANT
(GER) and RUNNING WILD spring to mind, and FUTURE TENSE are more than
worthy of mentioning in the same breath as these classics.
The band officially reformed in 2003 after re-recording a few old cuts
for a mini-CD and a Compilation some years earlier. They did a hanful
of gigs in Holland, but sadly disbanded again in the beginning of 2004.
You can educate yourself further on all things FUTURistic at their
webpage
and if you're having trouble finding this album I'm happy to announce
that Doomed Planet records have just re-released it together with their
3rd and last demo, "Battle Of Metal". Consummate or suffer!