Mabus

Mabus: Cheers, To Doomsday GloomCheers, To Doomsday Gloom (2006)
Glacial

Reviewer Rating: 4

Contributed by: AnchorsAnchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on July 25th 2006God damnit. Last November, I went to the Rhythmden Fest in Poughkeepsie, and saw a wide array of incredible bands including Shai Hulud, Converge, Municipal Waste, and Modern Life Is War. There were three venues connected, and subsequently, there were usually at least 2 bands playing at any given .

God damnit.

Last November, I went to the Rhythmden Fest in Poughkeepsie, and saw a wide array of incredible bands including Shai Hulud, Converge, Municipal Waste, and Modern Life Is War. There were three venues connected, and subsequently, there were usually at least 2 bands playing at any given time, forcing you to make a judgement call against one band to see another.

Mabus was one of those bands I hadn't heard of, shrugged it off and said, "ah, I'm probably not missing much of anything." How wrong I was. How very, very wrong I was.

Cheers, To Doomsday Gloom is in my CD player as we speak letting me know just how wrong I in fact was. The fact of the matter is this -- this band rips. Elements of grind, tech-metal, and a heavy jazz influence all come together beautifully to make this record not only diverse, but extremely fluid and extremely cohesive. That's usually the main problem a band like this has -- you can play a million miles an hour, but to make an interesting song, let alone album, is a different venture entirely. Luckily, Mabus have no such problems.

First and foremost, all members of this band are incredible musicians. I'm not talking in the basic guitar wankery sense of things, either, I mean these guys are damn good musicians. Some of the time signature changes on this record are liable to make your head explode out of sheer amazement, and what's more is they aren't gratuitous starts and stops for the sake of it -- they really feel fluid in the path and direction of their respective songs. The band knows when to turn it up to 11, and when to take things back down a few notches and let everyone catch their breath. Wasting no time to let the listener become acclimated with their crushing sound, "One's Nosedive Is Another's Parade" bursts out of the gate with some thunderous drum fills and the raspy scream of vocalist Shane Cashman. Cashman's voice is one of the more impressive in the genre, with screechy highs and lows that sound like they're being echoed straight from the bowels of hell. No matter the pace of the music, his vocals match it perfectly, and that's not exactly the easiest of tasks considering the chaotic nature perpetrated by the band's other three members.

The band is more than crazy time signature changes, blistering riffs, and insane drum fills -- they do have a more reserved side. Think about the jazz that Dillinger Escape Plan integrated on Miss Machine, do a good deal of expanding on that, and you will find yourself listening to Mabus' "Swingin' in Saterlee Grove." A slinky, groove-packed jazz number that integrates some horns, and allows Cashman to do his best lounge singer rendition. What's more is it works. It works very, very well. The brief reprieve from the chaos the other songs offer is a welcome one, and there's more jazz moments sporadically sprinkled into many of the other songs to give it that extra little edge. The band even tries their hand at an entirely instrumental song, as "Canyons for Ribcages" acts as the slow churning prelude to the all out assault of the album closer, "Retire Happy."

It's not enough anymore to be technical for the sake of it. It's been done, it's been done again, and done some more. Fans of extreme music like Mabus are now a much harder bunch to please, but an album like this, one that provides both chaos and structure is bound to appease the lot.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (July 30, 2006)

you guys are rediculous, the kid reviewed the cd. it was a good review wether you like the cd or not. it pinpointed all the main aspects mabus has to offer and some of you went off on a rant about who knows more than the other....who gives a fuck? this is to review mabus' new disc, not prove who knows more about the style of music, or who's music is better than the others...if you got something intelligent to say about "Cheers, To Doomsday Gloom" say it, otherwise stop wasting our time.

Scruffy (July 26, 2006)

FIRST: I don't think that the importance of music is measured by how many people listen to it. At all. I'm insinuating that, despite your claims to the contrary, you do, by how much importance you've put on which bands you know, and how many threads you pop into just to name drop some band you don't think anyone has heard of and say that they're better.

SECOND: This is the farthest I'll go in a my-musical-dick-is-bigger-than-yours battle, but it's laughable that you think I know so little about music and you know so much. If the lion's share of the musical knowledge you have that no one else does comes from a niche scene, it's unfair to count that. I'm sorry if I don't know every little new band that pops up on the underground grind and/or scene, but I happen to think that grind, in all its forms, including the ones you're going to say I've never heard, sucks. I probably know more than anyone else on this site about the early days of Christian punk and hardcore, but that doesn't mean I know more than them. I just don't flaunt every piece of musical knowledge that I have like you do. Insecure people flaunt everything they've got. You have no idea how much I know, because I don't go spouting off like a musical encyclopedia like you do.

Anonymous (July 26, 2006)

Just for shits, what do you conisder real grind?

Anonymous (July 26, 2006)

I love that you measure the importance of music by how many people listen to it.

"Like 100 people"

Shows how ignorant you are. The funny thing is, I don't really like much super obscure music. The fact that you guys all know so little just makes it look that way.

What started this big nerd battle? Baby Anchors couldn't handle my dissenting opinion. Boo fucking hoo, this band sucks, go listen to some good grind and fuck off.

And Clit 45? Hahaha. Whatevs.

-Will

Scruffy (July 26, 2006)

Will, you're a dick. No one knows as much about this music as you do because most of it sucks. Most of these bands you mention have an audience of like 100 people, and aren't any more important than the jazz grind you proclaim to hate. I don't need to know what new, obscure band you're name-dropping in this thread to know that your reactionary "this isn't grind (or whatever)" attitude is the same as the ignorant kids I see with Clit 45 patches who actually scoff when I say I'm going to see Lagwagon.
Oh, and when you say "you are too ignorant about extreme music," you sound like Bill and Ted, or Beavis and Butthead. Just like I don't need to be intimate with all of System Of A Down's CD to know that Rolling Stone is full of crap when they call them good, I don't need to know every band you listen to to know that you're a pompous douchebag who thinks that he'll learn a lot about oobscure bands, rather than learning some about every band, and then brag about how much he knows. I don't need to know your favorite bands to know you're an elitist prick who just wants to one-up everyone.

feeeding5000 (July 26, 2006)

Dammit! *TROUBLE* not "teouble"

feeeding5000 (July 26, 2006)

Uh oh...looks like teouble's a-brewin'

Anonymous (July 26, 2006)

So basically, I'm a loser with no life and I suck, blah blah blah. Accuse me of whatever (though I distinctly remember Scott registering at AbsolutePunk expressly to mouth off to them- that's not what I'm doing, I just have my opinions).

I'm not going to get into a big debate. I don't have to defend my viewpoints from someone who doesn't know as much about this music as I do.

Anchors (July 25, 2006)

It's the same argument because nothing changes! You still come to this site and contribute nothing but a ton of negativity, acting (and laughably so) as if you have a supreme amount of music knowledge. This leads to my inference of you not getting out much. Surely, if you did, you'd find better things to do with your day than take the exact opposite point of whatever article or review is posted that day.

"The idea that jazz is in any way actually connected to grind/thrash is a myth created by John Zorn"

Ok, then..

Yeah, Naked City is pretty cool..

Well, which is it Will? I know, I know, you also said they shouldn't be the model for any new bands, too. Why? Because you don't deem them talented and influential enough? Because you have qualms about two genres being mixed that you don't think should? Jazz and grind mixing is not that crazy of a thing to comprehend for anyone who's knowledge is worth a grain of salt.

Finally, this band is NOT to be compared with the #12 or whatever 'faux grind' it is you think you're so wittily referring to. The fact of the matter is this, nobody namedrops grind as an influence. Grind is either an influence in the music or it's not. There's no pretending and there's no hiding it. And shitty as they are, bands like #12 areinfluenced by grind, albeit adding their own terrible spin on the music.

But I've wasted far too much time on this as is. You're a sad, sad kid Will, and until you prove otherwise (IE: commenting with one thing that isn't argumentative or reactionary) that is what I will continue to believe.

Anonymous (July 25, 2006)

It's always the same argument from you. "Go out, make some friends, etc."- a fucking lazy excuse for the fact that you are too ignorant about extreme music to even debate with me.

Yeah, Naked City is pretty cool, but by no means should be the model for any new bands. Jazz and grind don't really have anything in common, and I'm sick of this neo-grind wave of bands that use wuss blastbeats as an excuse to namedrop "grind" or "powerviolence" as unexpected influences.

-William Marinovic

Anchors (July 25, 2006)

Will, do you have to take a reactionary position on fucking everything? Jesus Christ. Go out, make some friends, enjoy life man.

And for the record, Naked City is likely better than most of what you listen to.

Anonymous (July 25, 2006)

Mathcore sucks. The idea that jazz is in any way actually connected to grind/thrash is a myth created by John Zorn and endorsed by a bunch of people who wanted grind to have a more mature reputation. Fuck that. I'll listen to BadEatingHabits over this.

-WilliamMarinovic

johnnydanger (July 25, 2006)

yuck