On their third campaign to open the public's eyes to the ills of modern society, Los Angeles industrial anarchists
3Teeth expand the scope of their assault with the powerful
Metawar, a hulking monster that makes shutdown.exe sound tame in comparison. Uncovering all the sins that America has to offer, the band pulls no punches, delivering their typically subversive and unflinching messages with beefed-up sound quality courtesy of producer
Sean Beavan. As on previous releases, two of
Beavan's former collaborators (
Nine Inch Nails and
Marilyn Manson) heavily inform
3Teeth's sound, just as much as influences
Rob Zombie and
Rammstein. These songs are unrelenting, cathartic releases, with frontman
Alexis Mincolla's nightmarish lyrics (as apocalyptic and dystopian as ever) bludgeoned home by a band (
Chase Brawner,
Xavier Swafford,
Andrew Means, and
Justin Hanson) in peak form. Like a Terminator-meets-The-Matrix film directed by
Rob Zombie, this is techno-horror pushed through a meat grinder. Highlights abound as
3Teeth veer from towering epics ("Altaer," "Sell Your Face 2.0") to melodic earworms that creep deep into the brain ("The Fall," "Surrender"). The corrosive "Affluenza" rides a
NIN-versus-
Prodigy synth attack that chronicles the spread of corporate disease across the globe, which complements "EXXXIT," an ode to American imperialism and consumer culture. "President X" tackles the uncomfortable truth that they're all bad (just packaged differently), as downtuned nu-metal guitars churn and drums pop. They even take indie-synth band
Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" and inject it with the appropriate dread to match the song's original, troubling lyrics. Social media, facial recognition technology, privacy, identity politics: it's all here and nothing is safe from
Mincolla's critical eye. While this might sound like more of the same, there's just enough variation to the observations to make
Metawar feel fresh and full of newfound anxiety. The nightmarish threat is all-too-real and
3Teeth knows it. By peeling away the layers, they reveal that doom is not waiting far in the future but is already at our gates. Therein lies the true horror on
Metawar, a wake-up call to the people that demands change before it's too late. ~ Neil Z. Yeung