The below album review was written for AreaDeath Productions’ release of Barbatos' 2014 full-length "Rocking Metal Motherfucker." Posted on Metal Archives, the target audience for this review was metal music enthusiasts and potential consumers. Metal Archives is an online metal music resource that is considered by many to be The Holy Grail of all metal music-related information.
See original posting here.
Barbatos can be summed up with the following three actions: Drink beer, Headbang yourself silly and go fuck. The term bangover is highly appropriate when applied to Barbatos, or any of Yasuyuki Suzuki’s projects for that matter. The lyrics are depraved, overly sexual and generally just inane with all ignorant stereotypes about metal music and metalheads attached: The objectification of women, anthems for drinking excessive amounts of beer, encouragement and praise for deviant acts of vandalism, and, of course, sex. Lots of sex. There’s no profound, philosophical or political message to Barbatos’ material; no mind-blowing ideology. The take away, if there is any, is getting shitfaced, having fun, and fucking, all set to the melody of primitive, bare-boned punk-metal noise.
Rocking Metal Motherfucker is just another collection of Barbatos’ blasphemous mantras (The soundtrack to a devoted headbanger’s lifestyle). The songs all possess the signature pervert touch of Yasuyuki Suzuki and all sound like they came from the same musical vein as all of his other musical projects. The difference between this release to other Barbatos releases on AreaDeath Productions is the addition of live recordings from their 2001 Drakkar Hell Fest and 2013 Hatsudai WALL sets along with a cover of Vulpecula ‘s song “The First Point of Aries.” Barbatos’ material is definitely suited for the live setting. Their rudimentary, fist-pumping-inducing hailstorm would be a treat to experience in a Japanese dive bar. Similarly, their cover of Vulpecula’s “The First Point of Aries” is just as celestial as the original. All in all, Barbatos is a great downright dirty auditory encounter that leaves the pervert in all of us thirsty for our most crucial and primitive need: more thrashing metal…and beer?