Customer Reviews

Intercepting Fist

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A huge step up from their first release (Enter the Dragon), Dim Mak have unleashed a massive blow to the cranium with Intercepting Fist! Fans of technical metal will especially enjoy this release as the band has proven once again that they are the masters of their instruments. Erik Rutan has produced a recording worthy of all praise on this one with the band coming across heavier and more brutal. Dim Mak is hard to categorize musically, since they are not anything like Ripping Corpse (of which 3/4 of the band are originally from) and it is not death metal or like anything you've heard of before. They are defining a genre (again) with a no-compromise attitude. Very refreshing and intelligent lyrical content, superb instrumental work, and a punishing attack make this a CD heavy in rotation for me. Highlights include: Interceptor, Phoenix Eye Fist and Tai Pan Snake Venom. I'd give it 5 stars but I would have liked to hear a little more of the bass guitar, which is almost lost in the mix at times. Other than that personal preference, buy it now! You will not regret it.

A friend of mine who works at a nearby metal/hardcore music store recommended one day that I simply must buy this album. I had seen it before but it never caught my attention yet he is usually right about what he says I should hear so I went out on a limb and bought it.....and what a smart thing to do. I later found that Dim Mak featured members of the long gone band Ripping Corpse (who are criminally underrated) yet even without this knowledge I became a huge fan of these guys just as soon as I threw the cd into my car stereo and hit play. They play this punishingly heavy sort of death metal with a bit of metalcore thrown in (mainly in the vocals) and while "punishingly heavy death metal" sounds about as amazing as putting cheese on pizza I can assure you that its anything but. The guitarist is simply a demon as he whips through stuff both so technical and so fast that anyone aspiring to cover a song of theirs is going to give themselves quite a headache. The drummer too has evolved from his days in Ripping Corpse of playing more straight ahead material to some highly intricate, ultra fast and very tight rhythms. Fans of Ripping Corpse (all twenty of you) as well as of Lamb of God/Burn the Priest, Meshuggah, The Red Chord and anything else along those lines will just love this album. Along with December and Mastodon its one of the best releases of 2002 thus far.

Back in the 80's Ripping Corpse was THE death-metal (or thrash, or whatever ultra-heavy genre name you want to pick) band that left all other Jersey bands (and frankly most bands anywhere) in its dust. They only put out one album, the classic "Dreaming With the Dead" and then they sort of fizzled out... but then Shaune, Scott and Brandon returned with a different bassist and a new band, Dim Mak.

With Dim Mak, the guitar wizard Shaune Kelly changed his approach, opting for less solos and more insane, twisted riffing. The first Dim mak album, Enter the Dragon, was a phenomenal slab of aggressive riffs and extremely angry-sounding vocals, delivered with razor-sharp precision. Brandon is definitely one of the sickest drummers EVER (and the nicest, kindest guy you could ever wish to meet, by the way! Don;t let the look fool you!).

For their second release, the formula hasn't changed much.... but unfortunatley it sounds like Scott Ruth may have passed his prime, vocally. On the first album, not only were his vocals higher pitched, they were a lot more clearly articulated, so that you could generally understand what the heck he was saying. In "Intercepting Fist," he's reduced to a pretty monotone growl that is absolutely unintelligible. In short, there is considerably less vocal dynamics on this album, and that's a shame. Then again, you have to figure that years and years of just brutalizing his vocal chords would have to take a toll at some point.

The music is still top-notch, and I would still love to see these guys live again, but this album lacks the full range of "Enter The Dragon" so it only gets four stars.

As a massive fan of Ripping Corpse I had to check out their evolution that became Dim Mak. And years later they are still going their own way and forging metal unlike any other!
This stuff like the band's name is like an attack on all bodily senses and pressure points from all angles, brutal as hell with pounding rhythm and technical prowess skies above most metal bands out there. Some of the tracks on this album will blow you apart!! `Phoenix Eye Fist' and `Mindgate' being only 2 to mention!!! BRUTAL!!!

Their first album (as Dim Mak) is also highly recommended if you can find it, `Enter the Dragon' was more shall we say `experimental' than it's predorcessor but still as brutal and technical as ever! Both albums in my opinion are HIGHLY recommended :)
The new album 'Knives of Ice' is out now! Expect no mercy!!

A huge step up from their first release (Enter the Dragon), Dim Mak have unleashed a massive blow to the cranium with Intercepting Fist! Fans of technical metal will especially enjoy this release as the band has proven once again that they are the masters of their instruments. Erik Rutan has produced a recording worthy of all praise on this one with the band coming across heavier and more brutal. Dim Mak is hard to categorize musically, since they are not anything like Ripping Corpse (of which 3/4 of the band are originally from) and it is not death metal or like anything you've heard of before. They are defining a genre (again) with a no-compromise attitude. Very refreshing and intelligent lyrical content, superb instrumental work, and a punishing attack make this a CD heavy in rotation for me. Highlights include: Interceptor, Phoenix Eye Fist and Tai Pan Snake Venom. I'd give it 5 stars but I would have liked to hear a little more of the bass guitar, which is almost lost in the mix at times. Other than that personal preference, buy it now! You will not regret it.