Metal Underground.com

Do you like being repeatedly punched in the face? If your answer to that was “no,” then you might want to stay far away from Owen Hart's latest full length album "Earth Control." Washington's Owen Hart is known for its unforgiving blend of abrasive grindcore, truly brutal death metal, and subtle amounts of black metal - and the band is also known for not giving a shit about genre labels. "Earth Control" keeps true to the band's mantra and is a statement, a warning shot if you will, to the legions of commercialized bands that have been flooding the stagnant metal scene over the past decade.

"Earth Control," to put it in its truest and most organic form, is a beast. Every one of its thirty minutes is a monster that tears at the flesh and breaks the bones. "Earth Control" is a breath of fresh air, one that brings metal back to the glory days when "heavy" meant doing things the right way and not taking short cuts by using over-produced studio tricks to create a false sense of heaviness. The music here is as raw as raw can get. Every instrument has a natural tone to it and sounds as if you are sitting right in front of the amps while Owen Hart destroys them. Everything from the guitars to the bass and drums is seemingly free from any pretentious studio trickery and sounds refreshingly real. "Earth Control" is heavy because it’s meant to be, not because some middle school kids wanted it to be.

While all the songs on "Earth Control" eventually tend to sound the same after a certain point, that's not to say it’s a bad thing. In fact, as far as this album is concerned, it’s a good thing. There's never a doubt in the mind that the next track is going to kick your ass any less than the previous one did, and that is a nice change of pace from the many other albums today that are more single oriented. "Earth Control" is an unrelenting assault of blast beats, monster riffs, distorted feedback, and ear piercing vocals. There's no breakdowns or pig squeals here; "Earth Control" is old school.

From "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die" to "Fuck Morrisey, Fuck the Smiths, Fuck the Cure," "Methlahem," and the album closer "Evolution's a Fact, Jack" the eleven tracks that make up this record are intense, criminally heavy, and beyond anything released in this year or last in terms of its raw aggression. And while some over-sensitive professional wrestling fans of the 90's seem to be distraught and disgusted by the band's choice of name, it’s without a doubt that Owen Hart is on a warpath, a predetermined mission to lay all manufactured metal bands to waste. And if "Earth Control" is any indication, Owen Hart will make all unworthy 'core bands tap-out in an instant.