Review by Denis on June 12, 2003.

What did the singer do to deserve this kind of treatment? He's screaming as if he was nailed on a cross and some creature was peeling off his skin! Poor guy! Charger's very first album will give you a hell of a shock. This is not for someone with fragile ears.

So much distortion can get on a man's nerves after a while. No attention has been made to make this recording a piece of art, production wise. Instead, a live sounding ambiance is offered.

And as far as the musical direction is concerned, well I think an attempt to blend together trash-black metal with doom-stoner parts could be a good way to describe the 'feel' of "Confessions of a Man (Mad Enough to Live Amongst Beasts)" a quite long title. Just like, the extended times of the tracks on "Confessions..." some lasting way too long in the 7-8-9 minutes range and pushing the limits to a 13 minute song is close torture when the musical quality is this mundane!

It's not too bad an album if you leave the poor singer and production aside and concentrate more on the heavy doom-stoner edge. Pieces being more attractive are 'God Made Us In The Image Of His Ass', track # 7 (no title) an instrumental and the best effort: 'Chide and Harmonies.'

The most solid points to the record are loud bass, good riffs but the guitars are not loud enough, drums lacking a bit of punch and way too high vocals with too much treble in them. The compositions are very similar, repetitive and go from trashy black to slower doom. This will work probably better for you black metal fans who like raunchy sounding work or the "true" style of bands like Darkthrone for instance.

Bottom Line: A head banging hit with pretty good stoner moments.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 6
Atmosphere: 6
Originality: 4
Production: 5
Overall: 5

Rating: 5.2 out of 10