Reviews list for Old (USA) - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak (1993)

There's barely any band that could change their sound in each album as immensely as OLD. Starting off as humorous metallic grindcore in their debut, they took on more of a psychedelic industrial metal style in Lo Flux Tube. Album #3, The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak is filled with experimental madness! Basically a weird yet awesome mix of metal and electronics from the brilliant James Plotkin and the shrieking Alan Dubin. Some who find this unlistenable don't know what they're missing in this wild adventure...

This is another original album ahead of time. They experiment with different styles, more than just metal, letting go of restrictive conventions and patterns so what they create can run free. I don't need the thrashy industrial metal of Ministry when I have this cool weirdness that actually suits me!

"A Beginning" is an astonishing way to begin this offering. Then leveling up high is the apparently two-part "Two of Me". More of the experimentation commences in the freaky highlight "Freak Now". That song was used in the soundtrack for the film Brainscan. Another song featured in that movie is "Peri Cynthion", one h*ll of a 10-minute experimental industrial metal epic. Listen for yourself if you like this sound!

"Happy Tantrum" sounds like an outtake from Lo Flux Tube, but a great improvement from there. It's another one of my favorite tracks in this album, with absolutely no filler. The experimentation actually sounds catchier than that of the mathy metalcore of Coalesce. "Creyap'nilla" can sound a little creepy at times.

"Glitch" is really great but can be a bit glitchy in some parts. "Ebb" allows the experimental instrumentation to flow nice and smoothly, while staying surreal. "Backwards Through the Greddo Compressor" is the 11-minute finale that almost sounds like the album is shortened and compressed. It's so different yet listenable! However, it probably won't help those people who put down the album change their minds.

Yeah, those unbelievers are better off elsewhere. The only people I would recommend this to are those up for a challenge through experimental noise-powered industrial metal, like I am now. Enjoy the weirdness!

Favorites: "Freak Now", "Peri Cynthion", "Happy Tantrum", "Backwards Through the Greddo Compressor"

It’s been fifteen months since I boldly opted to select New Jersey industrial metallers O.L.D.’s 1991 “Lo Flux Tube” sophomore album for feature release status here at the Metal Academy. I was familiar with their 1988 debut album “Old Lady Drivers” from my early tape trading days & it was essentially a fairly uneventful novelty grindcore release but their second effort saw the trio taking a succession of bold creative risks whose combined merits amounted to a unique & much more challenging avant-garde industrial metal record. It wasn’t without its faults of course but I generally enjoyed the experience & became interested to see where O.L.D. might take things from there given their undeniable passion for the obscure & unusual.

1993’s “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” album definitely takes things to the next logical level with the psychedelic cover artwork giving the listener a pretty accurate impression of what lies beneath. The production job is greatly improved from “Lo Flux Tube” which is a definite plus given that record’s obvious flaws in that department. This time most of the tracks are given a lot more scope to create layers of mind-bending noise with your cerebellum being tweaked by high-pitched electronic wails & bizarre dissonance with great regularity. The influence of Godflesh in the beats & bass guitar work is still plain to see but I can’t say that “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” is as obviously industrial as its predecessor. Some tracks definitely push that sound harder than others but to my ears there’s more in the way of avant-garde metal & experimental rock included here with the rock-to-metal ratio finishing in fairly even proportions. Voivod is also still a huge player in the O.L.D. sound & it’s hard to imagine a record like this one being created without records like “Dimension Hatross” having first existed.

Front man & former Khanate vocalist Alan Dubin’s blackened scream is consistent with his approach on “Lo Flux Tube” but don’t expect to hear much in the way of traditional metal guitar work on this album because Phantomsmasher/Khanate axeman James Plotkin uses his instrument in ways that it was never originally intended & in the process makes one hell of a feedback-drenched racket. He also goes to town on the electronics which play the role of the protagonist on most occasions. The vast majority of the album absolutely oozes of space rock style psychedelia with the use of noise being a strong feature. It’s interesting that I pick up a Kraftwerk influence in some parts too which wasn’t something I was expecting at all. Does it work? Well yeah it does if being honest but I’m not too sure I want it to if I'm being honest.

The first fifteen minutes of the record are really interesting & I found myself immediately engaged but things don’t really reach their full potential until the amazing fourth track “Peri Cynthion” & the cerebral drone of “Creyap’nilla”, both of which are genuine classics of whatever bizarre amalgamation of subgenres this fucking record might be pushing. It’s really unfortunate though that the tracklisting finishes on such a weak note with the eleven minute “Backwards Through The Greedo Compressor” being not only the longest track but also a real stinker. I can’t help but think that O.L.D. could easily have left that track out given the lengthy 66 minute duration of the album & we would all have been happier campers for it. As it is though, “The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak” seems to tamely peter out after promising so much for an audience that’s actively looking for drug-fuelled shenanigans. Thankfully I was able to see past that error in judgement because the rest of the album sees O.L.D. producing sounds that are as much art as they are music.

Once again O.L.D. have produced an intriguing & highly original record that certainly won’t be for everyone. I fully appreciate the effort the band members have gone to to come up with such a whacked-out sound & when they get all of their ducks in a row it can be pretty fucking mind-blowing. It’s too bad that they can’t hit that mark consistently enough to see me wanting to come back for return visits in the future & some of that can be put down to the terrible way they’ve elected to close the album out. If pushed I’d probably suggest that “Lo Flux Tube” is still my O.L.D. record of choice but there’s very little in it so if you liked that release then you shouldn’t hesitate to check this one out too.

For fans of Voivod, Godflesh & Disharmonic Orchestra.

Not only one of the weirdest Metal albums, but plainly one of the weirdest albums period. Old are one of the fastest changing bands out there, exploring bizarre new frontiers on each release that are vastly different from the prior.

The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak is a nonsensical, Industrial affair between Metal and electronics. The songs are split between extreme metallic rocking and spacey electronic noise, all the while being very experimental in nature. A decent portion of this release is not Rock music at all, rife with science fiction-esque atmospheric noise that is difficult to define.

Wildly inconsistent in the end. Definitely a step down from Lo Flux Tube, although arguably more experimental and genre-busting. Fans of weirdo music will love this, and even those who aren’t may find this one intriguing listen.