Test Icicles want you to know that they are a clever band. They would appreciate your acknowledgement of the witty play on words in their name. They would also like you to think they are radical and avant-garde. Convinced that you will be impressed by their esoteric lyrics and experimental sound, Test Icicles have stocked their album with enough delirious antics to assure your ADD as well as theirs. If you are so duly impressed and acknowledging of their talent, they would like to show their gratitude by screaming at you until your ears bleed.
A disc with equal amounts of brilliancy and idiocy, For Screening Purposes Only is the first effort from the trio of young and apparently quite angry Londoners. Brash and effective, the album features mashed-up club beats, razor-sharp guitar riffs and blood-curdling screams from all three members. At times, this type of violent rock is appealing. But after seven or eight tracks, it becomes downright exhausting.
For Screening Purposes Only begins with "Your Biggest Mistake," a frantic, paranoid song that guitarist Dev Metal sings as if he's on horse tranquilizers. His bandmate, Raary Dechihells, provides ample throat-shredding screams in the background over breakneck guitars and drums. The track is an adrenaline rush that launches immediately into "Pull the Lever," a somewhat calmer bass-driven song reminiscent of Incubus' "Megalomaniac."
The rest of the album takes on a similar pattern, alternating between solid rock and utter chaos. "Circle, Square, Triangle" is an alarming hybrid of the alt-beats of Bloc Party and the commanding riffs of System of a Down, while "Catch It" is an explosive mix of the band's primal screams and the sheer volume of their instruments.
But once the adrenaline rush of Test Icicles' more furious songs wears off, it becomes unsettlingly clear that they are attempting to achieve a sound quality that they cannot reach. Their eagerness to present an image of total anarchy becomes irksome, as does their attempt to carry off power with volume alone. They are trying too hard. The guitars are too loud. The drums are too fast. The screams are, well … that ringing in your ears certainly isn't part of the given material. The band reveals itself to be incapable of replicating the quality heavy metal of the bands acknowledged in the gratitude section of Screening's liner notes. The trio thanks Slipknot for their influence and inspiration, but Test Icicles lacks the metal and grit that define Slipknot's death rock sound. They'll have to retreat to the drawing board if they want to pull off the mastery of their masked idols.
As Screening races toward its conclusion, Test Icicles' immaturity begins to seep through the album's thick layers of sound. On the aptly-titled "Maintain the Focus," lead singer Raary Decihells attempts to maintain his shrieking focus as he delivers the charming lines, "I can taste it now / Sweet blood and you're under the gun / So kiss this sacred ground / Kill them all if you look around." But Decihells fails to convey the menace he hopes to when his voice cracks halfway through the lines. He ends up sounding less like a tour de force and more like a seventh grader playing in a garage band.
All is not lost, however, as the band recovers nicely with "All You Need is Blood," which is a creative, scathing ode to the jetset lifestyle celebrated by rock gods and wannabes alike. The jumpy bonus track "What's In the Box?" finishes the disc with energy to spare.
Tracks such as these from the album's "softer" side ensure that Test Icicles can be forgiven for their occasional lapses in musical maturity. Even their pretentious, forced artiness can be forgiven if Dev Metal's ability to wield a guitar like a machine gun is taken into full account. But the constant screaming, lack of ingenuity and idiotic band name? Those may require a little more coaxing to be considered forgiven.
Rating: 3 out of 5
