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Diabolos in Musika - Natural Needs

Artist:	Diabolos in Musika
Title:	Natural Needs
Label:	Spesial-laboratoriet
Length(s):	51 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1995
Month of review:	11/1995

Line up

Oliver Weers-Eide - vocals
Ronny Heimdal - guitars, keyboards, samples, sequencer
Zsolt Mezaros - drums, percussion, sequencer
Fritz A. Aga - bass, keyboard, samples

Tracks

1)	Interpassive	0.38
2)	Got To Got To	3.57
3)	Dig This	4.07
4)	Kathmandu	1.20
5)	Luther	4.32
6)	Tribal Serenade	0.50
7)	Warzone/harmonic Profanity	5.50
8)	Methods & Talents	5.16
9)	If You Take Me...	5.09
10)	Disorder	0.39
11)	Live's Alive	5.18
12)	Thinking Wondering	3.55
13)	Gradually Going "agurk"	4.02
14)	Hoer Doch Auf Zu Klagen	5.10

Summary

The members of this band come from just about everywhere in Europe, but Norway is the home of this band, where all members ended up one way or the other. This is pretty much all background info that I will give here.

The music

The music starts out in the twilight zone with keyboards samples, while the tone for the album is set in Got to Got to. Heavy riffs, many tempo changes and aggressive singing. References coming to mind are Living Colour, a tough version of King'X and for instance Scatterbrain. Dig This is more of the same, but the vocals are a bit annoying sometimes. This also holds for Luther in which the vocal melody isn't very good, like, partly, in Dig This.

Another reference that I have to mention is Soundgarden. The latter is to the grunge sound, what D.I.M. might be to heavy metal. Also, the vocals of Weers-Eide remind me of Soundgardens frontman Cornell, especially when they sing loud and high.

The interludes add some flavour to the rocksongs with which most of this album is filled. Among these, Kathmandu is a good instrumental. In fact every interlude is a welcome resting point after the outright hectic vocal tracks these guys put before me.

Among these vocal tracks, War Zone is probably the best with melodic harmonies (which BTW they use more often than just here) and a melody that sticks. They remind me much of Living Colour here, with the background vocals. The track is rounded off by an instrumental part that might be interpreted as yet another interlude.

The intro to the eight song sounds very familiar, but for the life of it I can't remember where I first heard it. Both this track and the next are quite explicitly about sex. Also reminds me that they might also take the trouble to check on the English.

Separate mention should go to Gradually going "Agurk", which is a joke on Brufords part. The drummer of this band according to the bio has been influenced largely by this man (although he rates Ian Paice as more important). This song is exactly what one might expect: heavy metal jazzrock.

Conclusion

The music on this albums is complex heavy metal with lots of breaks and interesting for lovers of Dream Theater, King's X, Scatterbrain and maybe even Living Colour. They are less melodic than most of the former however and the listener should be very much aware of that. They do compare nicely to Awake by Dream Theater as that album tends to be less melodic than the earlier ones. They also tend to sound a like a metal version of Soundgarden with less song and more musicianship.

The interludes among the vocal tracks make the album listenable, providing breathing space for the listener. Personally I would have enjoyed a more melodic approach and the album tends to wear on me after some time, even with the interludes. This also has to do with the high pitched, raw, vocals, that tend to annoy after a while and the vocal melodies do not help very much either. There's place for improvement there, more than anywhere else.

Still, they might have opened up a new area here (or have they?): Dream Theater with jazz rock influences. So let's keep an eye open for them.