Training for Utopia -- Plastic Soul Impalement

6/10

After Demon Hunter's first few albums, I decided to check out the Clark brothers original band, Training for Utopia. I'd heard them on samplers before, and had a split E.P. they'd done with Zao, but had never heard their two full-length albums. All I knew was that they were heavy and kind of weird. Indeed, if there's one thing their debut album proves, it's that Training for Utopia in 1997 were heavy and kind of weird.
Plastic Soul Impalement features a bunch of chaotic, heavy songs, full of intensity, aggression, and nutty, often formless song structures. Also, sometimes there are movie samples, and a didgeridoo. Ryan Clark does very, very little of the singing he'd later be known for in Demon Hunter, sticking mostly to his barking scream here. Not a lot stands out throughout this hurricane of an album, but nothing's bad here, either. It's a rapid shot of adrenaline, and for what it is, it's fine.


1997 Solid State Records
1. Plastic Soul Impalement 3:25
2. A Good Feeling 3:07
3. Brother Hezekiah 3:06
4. Two Hands 3:42
5. Pretty Picture Of Lies 3:14
6. Black Forest 3:14
7. One Zero One 3:31
8. Burning Match In Hand 4:50
9. Human Shield 2:57
10. Single Handed Attempt At Revolution 5:50
11. A Gift To A Dying Friend 24:37