Jungle Rot - Terror Regime

In an age where trend hopping and experimenting are at the fore front of metal, for better or worse, It’s kind of nice to have a band you can rely on to be consistent. Not that I don’t love when a band branches out and it’s always nice to see a band try new things, but there is something to be said for consistency. Jungle Rot’s pretty much always been this kind of a band. They have a sound carved out for themselves and eight albums in they’ve stuck with it. What you get with these guys is an old school sound combining slower groovy but heavy riffs, with blistering solo’s thrown in now and again to speed things up. Their latest effort Terror Regime continues this method.

Consistency can be a double edge sword though. Sticking to a formula that’s worked in the past, especially if it’s worked well enough for seven other albums, is a good way to please your already established fan base, but on the same token, if your previous albums didn’t impress new fans you’re likely not going to change their minds now. By this point though I doubt this is a big worry for Jungle Rot. They’ve got a pretty loyal fan base built, and when I saw them live the crowd loved everything they did.

Terror Regime is a great album to head bang to. If there’s one thing that Jungle Rot is fantastic at, it’s writing catchy and heavy riffs, that while not mind blowingly new, makes for some great songs none-the-less. This album, like most of their albums, is definitely riff focused, with plenty of faster paced verses, heavier choruses, and sprinkles of great solos. The glue holding it together is Dave Matrise’s growl/shout. Dave doesn’t really break the mold when it comes to vocals, but his vocals have always worked well with their sound, and this album doesn’t change that at all.

The one issue people might have with this album is that there are too many stand out tracks, being that things follow a relatively similar formula, and everything is generally at a similar pace it’s hard for one song to stand above the others. However I found that there are particular moments on this album that make things more memorable, particularly the solo’s on the likes of ‘Terror Regime’, ‘I Am Hatred’, and ‘Rage Through The Wasteland’.  There is one track, ‘I Don’t Need Society’ which I learned after some research is a cover of an older Dirty Rotten Imbeciles song, that changes the pace of the album a bit, but the band seems to make it their own.

I wouldn’t say that Terror Regime is better than Kill On Command  or some of their other releases, as someone who prefers quality production I definitely prefer Jungle Rot’s newer releases, and this album is on the same level as Kill On Command if not a bit cleaner overall.  If you’ve enjoyed any of their albums though, this one is not to be missed. There’s plenty on here to enjoy, and while things may get a bit same, I never really found myself bored with the album, even after repeated listens. Something about this album beckons for at least a few play throughs.