Rating: 7.5

Country: The Netherlands

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: Sevared Records

Track list:
1. T34 (Silhouette of Death)
2. Blast Wave Diffraction
3. Suffice to Prevent
4. The Blood Road (Ho Chi Minh Trail)
5. Egoist Existence
6. Visceral Larvel Migrans
7. Imminent Repulsion
8. Insomnia
9. Der Rattenkrieg (Fortress Stalingrad)
10. Mortal Intrepid Frigate (The Battle of the Nile)

Band Website: Toxocara

Toxocara - Imminent Repulsion (Suffice To Prevent)

Martijn Moes - Rhythm & Lead Guitars
Vince Zwarts - Rhythm & Lead Guitars
Anne van Doorn - Bassguitar
Michiel van der Plicht - Drums
Kevin Quilligan -Vocals

Sleep was hard to come by ever since I read about this new band Toxocara, which boasted of having members of The Monolith Deathcult and Prostitute Disfigurement. Lying on my bed under the fan, I kept turning over like an open book page, wondering what this band would sound like. If that wasn't bad enough, I was reminded of its release oddly on Sevared Records, a label known for putting out only br00tal death metal stuff. At once my mind abandoned all previous thoughts and began contemplating about how that happened. All my puerile worries were completely dissipated in the sudden acknowledgement of the fact that you just can't go wrong with Dutch death metal - statistically speaking, almost 96.33% of the time (damn you Brutus!). Thus I came under great obligation to buy this and the next morning, following a wet dream, I did just that.

Imminent Repulsion sallies forth with pure death metal earnestness, with the guitarists employing what they have learnt from their experiences in their other bands, the cute female bassist proving that she can be a real scorcher on bass, and the dexterous drummer adeptly paving the way for the music. With an air of nonchalance, Toxocara provide for variations of all kinds - old school parts, solos, tempo changes, vicious hooks, deliberate plods, etc. and between each of that, they unfailingly charge at you with intimidating aggression so that you always remain wary of them. They seem well aware of the fact that their music isn't too original, so they keep it straight, play to their strengths and endeavour to strike a pleasurable balance in their music. This is where Toxocara score over The Monolith Deathcult, who at times are too overbearing.

Although far from extravagant, Toxocara's music isn't as one-dimensional as it might seem. Using the basic The Monolith Deathcult template, they have drained the Nile elements from their music but have augmented it with influences from numerous scenes. You have from Denmark, the zestful plodding and swinging hooks of Panzerchrist; from Sweden, the brisk flowing stream-like riffs of Vomitory and the bludgeoning parts of Grave; from Germany, the thumping aggression of Anasarca; from Brazil, the provoking riffs of Krisiun; and lastly from the USA, the typical flavouring of Cannibal Corpse with the Floridian death metal riffs and vocal inspirations of In Dark Purity era Monstrosity. The leads here possess a simplistic yet irrestistible charm to them, but only those played by one of the two lead guitarist. As they aren't credited in the songs, it's difficult for me to praise the right person. The other lesser lead guitarist is this perpetually agitated fella who I suspect plays leads for The Monolith Deathcult and naturally plays leads like The Monolith Deathcult, and that can't be a good thing at all. However, with a great sigh of relief I note that these quivering solos, similar to the ones played by Vader on The Ultimate Incantation and Slayer, are considerably better over here, sometimes even trespassing the Brazilian territory.

Despite their best efforts, Toxocara's song pattern proves to be repetitive and predictable as a result of which your interest often wanes during the course of the album. The production, while not as compact and powerful, doesn't detract much from the music and is overall fairly good and sturdy. The ripping The Monolith Deathcult-esque guitar tone is brought down over here too but the audibility of the other instruments remains unaffected in this case. The intros and spoken interludes are totally derived from Panzerchrist and like them even the lyrics are war based. The artwork though is plain lousy; what the fuck is that? A better question would be, where the fuck is the tank? Well, I found one in the inlay but what the heck is it doing loitering there when it should be right in the middle of the artwork, threatening you at tankpoint? Anyway, I'll let them go this time, but only because it is their debut.

Presently, Toxocara is this car following The Monolith Deathcult timidly on a highway - afraid of the oncoming cars, afraid to do something daring. But little do they know that with only some fine-tuning and courage, they can overtake even the eminent The Monolith Deathcult, for as it stands, Toxocara's debut album is already better than The Monolith Deathcult's first album The Apotheosis. Imminent Repulsion is a truly commendable release by Toxocara that is sure to please fans of pure death metal.

July 6th, 2006