OCTOBER FILE

While I can't imagine the corporate scum or religious right of the world uploading any OCTOBER FILE tunes to their iPods, the British-based act have dumped a truckload of angst right on their doorsteps. I'm not talking about that spoiled-brat, lashing-out-at-daddy kind of anger that goes away before bedtime; these dudes are genuinely pissed. So pissed-off in fact, that they had to spread their hate across two separate versions of the same album; one mixed by John Mitchell, the other by Justin Broadrick, both blissfully pummeling.

A fiery mix of industrial, metal and punk, "Our Souls To You" browbeats anyone within earshot while simultaneously offering barefaced social commentary. Justin Broadrick's involvement on this album shouldn't be taken as coincidence as much of the disc carries a strong GODFLESH influence. Many other names could be dropped when discussing OCTOBER FILE's sound (KILLING JOKE, BLACK FLAG and even SKINLAB to an extent to name a few),but ultimately this hatred comes straight from the band's collective heart. Guitarist Matt Lerwill is one hell of a creative songsmith. His dark, angular riffing style borrows from many different genres of heaviness, yet he manages to deliver his goods in a consistent manner. Sure, things tend to get a bit repetitive as the album plays on, but the dude has found his niche and many moments on this disc prove him to be a master of his craft. The coarseness of his tone only adds to the maelstrom. Equally as caustic are the vocals of Ben Hollyer. With a mouthful of glass, Hollyer fires back at society's oppressors with a violent, yet audible, delivery. It's not hard to envision gobs of blood-tinged saliva flying from the singer's mouth during the likes of "Crawl" and "Dredge". Hell, he even makes his over usage of the word "fuck" (practically the song's only lyric) work on the percussive and sample-laden "Our Souls To You (Part 2)" work.

I'll leave it up to the audiophiles out there to give a detailed comparison of the alternate mixes, but I will say that both show two very different sides of the same band. Neither really trumps the other in terms of clarity or overall bad-assery and both let the tunes do most of the talking. I did find it a bit ironic that Mitchell's mix out Broadrick-ed Broadrick's vision of the album. This is most likely due to the GODFLESH mastermind intentionally avoiding a case of been-there-done-that. Whatever the reasoning, I found it a very cool move on the band's part to give the fans two distinctly different versions of this platter of aural battery.

Were "Our Souls To You" somehow magically transformed into a carbon-based lifeform, I would have to imagine it being some nightmarish beast. Snarling, calculating and cold-blooded, this fucker is primed for a fight. Some strikes may be more vicious than others, but rest assured, lock horns with it and you won't come out a winner.