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DEBRIS INC ‘Debris Inc’ Rise Above (2005)
“Debris Inc” is the number one contender for the title of the most disappointing album of the year 2005! This sentence was what I was originally considering to be my full review of this album, but after giving it some thought, I realised that even such a badly made release as this deserves to be better presented. Well, it wasn’t just my conscience, which dictated this change of attitude, but also the fact that this was one of the albums that I was really looking forward to listening to.
You see, this band is the product of the collaboration between David Chandler (Saint Vitus) and Ron Holzner (Trouble) – both of whom were leading figures of the Doom Metal scene. Having made a great impact on the music world (and on myself) with albums such as “Psalm 9” and “Hallow’s Victim”, these great musicians decided to continue their quest under the same banner, and formed Debris Inc. This new project could not have found a better supporter than Lee Dorian’s Rise Above records, which offered them a contract and scheduled their debut release for 2005. All that sounds quite idyllic, so why did it all go so terribly wrong?
It seems that instead of sitting down in order to create decent Doom Metal compositions, Chandler & Holzner were more interested in getting stoned and playing any sort of rubbish that would come to mind! Forget about the glorious days of the past – “Debris Inc” is more likely to be appreciated by a fan of the Exploited rather than by a person who grew up listening to the classic Trouble and Saint Vitus vinyls. The production is terrible, the songs are badly structured and both musicians sound like they are recovering from a terrible hangover while listening to Punk albums, rather than singing. I have really struggled in order to find a couple of compositions worth mentioning, and even though they do exist (“The Old Man and his Bong”, “The Life and Times of Claude and Elmo”), there’s no way that they can be compared with classics such as “The Fall of Lucifer” (Trouble) or “Let the End Begin” (Saint Vitus).
To summarise, I would not have been so critical of “Debris Inc” if it had been the new release from a deteriorating Punk Metal band, but now that I come to think of it, even such a band would probably be capable of producing something better than Dave Chandler’s and Ron Holzner’s combined opus. Experienced artists like these should be more conscious of what they are releasing, and also more respectful towards the people who have been supporting them throughout the years. We are supposed to live in a tolerant society, so I wouldn’t want to deprive them of expressing themselves in any way – I just hope that next time they choose to do so, they will restrain themselves from releasing such “recordings” to the public!
If you end up buying this album, it will be either because you have participated in the “creative” process, or because you will be a devoted Doom Metal fan, in which case you have my deepest sympathies!
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Review by John Stefanis
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