For only a 5-piece, you'd swear you were listening to an army of ex-(and sort of still current) metalheads,
doing their best to create something fresh while still paying homage to their heroes. Three guitars, three vocals,
all perfectly and intricately interlaced.
song list:
Oakwood Renewal Project
Sharpening Scissors
Afterbirth
Stratego
Verminopolis
Someday Science
Piscene Industries
I Dare the Sky
Reprisaled Face
Sleeping With Spiders
Pressing Info:
First Press: November 1, 2002; 983 copies.
Pressed at Imprint.
REVIEWS:
From Oddshaped.com
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS 4/5
3 Guitarists and 3 vocalists, that's all that needs to be said... crazy, strange, and innovative are a great help though.
Mataburro are a strange blend of multiple vocal metal. A contrived blend of orchestrated chaos, screaming, death, thrash, and sarcasm composed by some sort of uber genius. An old man spent many an hour in his hidden laboratory, grey hair streaking to the skies, under the subtle glow of his lamp he mixed everything under the sun. We must thank his relentless spirit for turning away his wife's cries, "honey come to bed", for Mataburro must have been spawned by a madman like this.
It's pretty much a guarantee that your ears have never been invaded by anything remotely close to Mataburro. Their mix of anything from death to screamo, converge to iron maiden, accompanied by the dual sets of triplets put for an outstanding album 10 tracks in length.
The artwork features pseudo bears, which are made sense by the words on the inside. The lyrics aren't present, but instead a 10 day diary entry. The author, some kind of construction worker writes in bouts of cynicism.
From Day 1:
"there we sit with our shovels and unpopular views while they stand there eating turkey sandwiches in leather shoes and yelling about wildlife rights"
From Day 2:
"Something started growling and that gave us plenty of motivation to leave. Unfortunately, one of the fatter guys who I don't know too well didn't seem to make it back with us."
From Day 3:
"but jesus... why would something eat so much of him when there was a perfectly zesty looking deer carcass right there?"
From Day 5:
"we can't seem to get out of the woods because there is a commotion among the protesters. It looks like the ones who handcuffed themselves to the trees have been mauled and eaten down to the skeleton"
From Day 6:
"Only a few days in and already I have begun losing track of time. Thank god for my digital watch."
From Day 8:
"The stars that I used to count are now the millions of eyes that haunt my sleep and I am jealous of dead men."
From Day 10:
"They will have their way in time and the woods will send me a goodbye kiss.. but I'll kiss them back with my fist."
If you want the entire 10 day entries, you'll just have to purchase the album, with the story you'll also get 10 fucking good tracks. Why wouldn't you buys this release? Now only if I knew what the band was singing about.
From Aversion Online
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS 6/10
This is weird stuff. Lots of dissonance and chaotic chord progressions mixed with tremolo picking and stuttered rhythms, some great melodic runs, and a fairly technical approach (without getting too far out there). One minute it sounds like grinding chaotic metalcore, then it goes into some death metal riffing, a little melodic Swedish kick, brief hints at a little bit of sludge, and "Stratego" even has some clean guitars that almost have a flamenco sort of sound going on!? Plus the vocals range from high screams to straight shouting, some low growls, singing, etc. There's definitely a lot going on. I will say that I prefer more tangible tracks like "I Dare the Sky" that effectively mix all of their styles with smooth transitions to some of the more caustic and all over the place material, but it's still obvious that this band is onto something. Sadly the recording doesn't do them justice. It actually sounds pretty good, but it's way, way too thin. The guitars are somewhat abrasive, though still heavy, but as soon as the guitars and scathing vocals kick in full blast, the drums lose some of their density and the bass pretty much disappears. And that's a shame, because these cats have a lot going on rhythmically that not only needs to be heard, but it needs to be in place to hold down the backbone of most of these songs. About halfway through the record my ears complete adjusting to the tones, but they definitely need a more beneficial mix. Less treble on the guitars, more volume on the bass… that's a start. But it's clear, they are on the right track. The layout is pretty interesting. I like the fact that you can't gauge what the music sounds like at all by the way the packaging looks. There are some nice illustrations of bears (I guess), some of which have extended necks like giraffes, and the inside of the booklet is set up like a 10-day journal (complete with entries rather than the actual lyrics), using worn paper textures and a font that sort of looks like handwriting (using actual handwriting on worn paper would have been far cooler, but whatever). "Day 8: The woods came alive… all eyes and teeth. Most of my crew is dead. I am in a cave and I hope someone finds this someday. The stars that I used to count are now the millions of eyes that haunt my sleep and I am jealous of the dead men. I found enough timber to keep whatever it is at bay with fire." This is definitely a curious record. I'd like it better if the mix was kinder to the incredible rhythm section, but it's kind of hard on the ears right now, and the writing needs to be a bit more cohesive. On a side note I must also say that I definitely respect this label for selling brand new CD's for $7ppd in the US. That fucking rules. We'll see what this band does next…
Running time - 39:45, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Verminopolis, I Dare the Sky, Sleeping With Spiders]
From Heart Attack #37:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
These guys are from my region, the Albany, NY area. The first song started off sounding a lot like Acme or something in the German metal vein. As the CD moves forward, it becomes more and more filled with Iron Maidenish double leads and crazy Slayerish parts.
The vocals are doubled and sometimes tripled. Be well prepared, this is full-on metal, for this is far from hardcore or punk. I've never seen them live but after hearing the CD, I'd be very interested in seeing these progressive metal dudes wank their instruments. This is well done.
I'm shocked Hater of God hasn't put something out by these guys. I'm wondering if these guys' graphics were influenced by Albany's Wolpack LP (ha ha). NW
From Action Attack Helicopter:
War in the Woods
Everything about Slave Union Records' Mataburro screams originality. From the creepy, glowing eyes in their cover art, to the whimsical lyrics that so subtly weave themselves into a concept album that is their freshman effort, War in the Woods.
The album itself is a story about hunters hired to make their way into a wooded area that most believe is infested with angry bears. As the album moves on, it is soon realized that the woods are indeed infested, but with a beast more heinous than any grizzly. Half-eaten animals are found at first, and then people, and then finally, we find the main character of our story surrounded, writing his last farewell as the deadly beasts surround him.
Overall this disc is an incredible attempt at a concept album — which can be said of very few concept album attempts.
The only negatives on this album are technical problems in the mixing and sound quality, and do little to take away from the overall feel and talent that this band displays. This disc is a remarkably creative effort from Mataburro, leaving the listener wondering what could possibly come next from this young band. - Jeff Petermann
From Dance of Days:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS CD
There is an awesome independently owned and operated vegan cafe/restaurant in this town called Mara Bunta. You should go there when you're in Wien. Other than a pretty similar name, Mataburro have nothing in common with them. They're metal. Three guitars, three vocalists - and they're only a five piece. Insanely heavy and brutal as fuck. You can tell that they are hardcore kids who grew up on metal and still listen to metal. There aren't any lyrics printed here, but a rather interesting conceptual story about the woods coming alive, and I felt reminded of King Diamond and his spooky bedtime story crap, only that Mataburro is way better and without any of those horrible falsetto vocals. I have no idea how serious this is supposed to be, but the cover art and the story go together very well and the music just kicks ass. It’s cool to see someone play with old metal clichés and tongue-in-cheek is always fine with me. If I didn't get the point, I can still enjoy the music and won't have to feel annoyed by some fucked up metal attitude. (tr)
From Cross My Heart With a Knife:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
This CD starts out assaulting everything and anything close. Its really really tight but its just fucking everywhere so youre not going to know what the hell is going on. All youll know is that its damn impressive. The music is unrelenting.
The rough pounding parts are sometimes broken up by evil sounding castlevania-metal guitars and even sometimes a hint of something pretty. Behind the harsh main vocals can come shrieks and screams that make it nothing less than demonic sounding. Theres singing though sometimes too. Theres tons of stuff. And thats just all in the first song. You get 10 of these on this disk.
Plain and simple, the band mixes brutal hardcore with metal and a little bit of straight up rock ...and it happens to turn out very well.
Sometimes its like an 80s metal band was kidnapped from the past to play this stuff and sometimes its just straight up crushing hardcore with metal twists. I think if this were done by any other band, I wouldnt like it at all. Mataburro is thuroughly impressive though and its like they wrote the book on how to make this kind of music. Maybe they have?
From Smother.net:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
Mataburro is the injection that is needed in the metalcore world. With complex riffs, ever-changing tempos, and innovative singing (not relying on the scream or hoarse-throated yell is a good thing), Mataburro tells a 10-day tale in the CD liner that is truly an interesting story. For some reason the album, artwork, and just feel of the band remind of that movie “The Thirteenth Warrior” maybe because of the story of man vs. beast but regardless, this is a great album with a truly original metal sound. Besides any band who names a song after one of the best board games ever— “Stratego”—is cool in my book. Ordered chaos would be a great selection of two words to describe Mataburro but even they don’t give the band the justice it commands.
- J-Sin (Note: This was an "editor's pick" -S.U.)
From Calamity Project:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
picture putting pg.99 and converge in a blender and throwing some nice metal harmonies in the mix, and this is what mataburro is. a refreshing metal/hardcore outfit that puts out genre-bending and genre-defying music, and does a very good job at it.
the songs are primarily metal/hardcore songs, but they throw in melodic singing, tinges of death metal/grindcore, and even some of those nice metal leads in their songs. they're aggressive, raw, rabid, and very unrelenting in their delivery. a lot of times when you hear bands that try to do this, they don't do it quite right, but mataburro pulls it off w/out breaking a sweat. 10 songs of this uncompromising insanity makes for a wonderful listen.
definitely somethign i wouldn't pass up. check out their mp3s on the slave union website, and pick up the record. you won't regret it.
From Scenester Online:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
Wow. Melodic, harmonic, crazy, screamy metal. But not simply metal. This is great. Three guitars, three singers. All blended amazingly. Now I realize the word 'amazing' is very over-used and I am just as guilty of that as the nezt person, but in this case, it is very true. They throw in influences from so many different forms of music that it is very hard to try to break it down. The intro to Stratego sounds very latin influensed to me....and are those finger cymbols I hear in the begginning of Someday Science??? EXCELLENT. The layout is creepy as hell with strange bear-like creatures and a small story in the form of a diary in the inside. I usually hate not having lyrics to look at, and although I am extremely curious as to what they are singing and screaming about, I didn't even care that there were no lyrics because the space was instead used for something just as worthwhile and interesting. I literally haven't taken it out of my cd player since I got it. And I don't see myself taking it out any time soon. Bottom line: if you don't get this cd, you are fucking stupid. –AG
For only a 5-piece, you'd swear you were listening to an army of ex-(and sort of still current) metalheads, doing their best to create something fresh while still paying homage to their heroes. Three guitars, three vocals, all perfectly and intricately interlaced. song list:
Oakwood Renewal Project
Sharpening Scissors
Afterbirth
Stratego
Verminopolis
Someday Science
Piscene Industries
I Dare the Sky
Reprisaled Face
Sleeping With Spiders
Pressing Info:
First Press: November 1, 2002; 983 copies.
Pressed at Imprint.
REVIEWS:
From Oddshaped.com
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS 4/5
3 Guitarists and 3 vocalists, that's all that needs to be said... crazy, strange, and innovative are a great help though.
Mataburro are a strange blend of multiple vocal metal. A contrived blend of orchestrated chaos, screaming, death, thrash, and sarcasm composed by some sort of uber genius. An old man spent many an hour in his hidden laboratory, grey hair streaking to the skies, under the subtle glow of his lamp he mixed everything under the sun. We must thank his relentless spirit for turning away his wife's cries, "honey come to bed", for Mataburro must have been spawned by a madman like this.
It's pretty much a guarantee that your ears have never been invaded by anything remotely close to Mataburro. Their mix of anything from death to screamo, converge to iron maiden, accompanied by the dual sets of triplets put for an outstanding album 10 tracks in length.
The artwork features pseudo bears, which are made sense by the words on the inside. The lyrics aren't present, but instead a 10 day diary entry. The author, some kind of construction worker writes in bouts of cynicism.
From Day 1:
"there we sit with our shovels and unpopular views while they stand there eating turkey sandwiches in leather shoes and yelling about wildlife rights"
From Day 2:
"Something started growling and that gave us plenty of motivation to leave. Unfortunately, one of the fatter guys who I don't know too well didn't seem to make it back with us."
From Day 3:
"but jesus... why would something eat so much of him when there was a perfectly zesty looking deer carcass right there?"
From Day 5:
"we can't seem to get out of the woods because there is a commotion among the protesters. It looks like the ones who handcuffed themselves to the trees have been mauled and eaten down to the skeleton"
From Day 6:
"Only a few days in and already I have begun losing track of time. Thank god for my digital watch."
From Day 8:
"The stars that I used to count are now the millions of eyes that haunt my sleep and I am jealous of dead men."
From Day 10:
"They will have their way in time and the woods will send me a goodbye kiss.. but I'll kiss them back with my fist."
If you want the entire 10 day entries, you'll just have to purchase the album, with the story you'll also get 10 fucking good tracks. Why wouldn't you buys this release? Now only if I knew what the band was singing about.
From Aversion Online
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS 6/10
This is weird stuff. Lots of dissonance and chaotic chord progressions mixed with tremolo picking and stuttered rhythms, some great melodic runs, and a fairly technical approach (without getting too far out there). One minute it sounds like grinding chaotic metalcore, then it goes into some death metal riffing, a little melodic Swedish kick, brief hints at a little bit of sludge, and "Stratego" even has some clean guitars that almost have a flamenco sort of sound going on!? Plus the vocals range from high screams to straight shouting, some low growls, singing, etc. There's definitely a lot going on. I will say that I prefer more tangible tracks like "I Dare the Sky" that effectively mix all of their styles with smooth transitions to some of the more caustic and all over the place material, but it's still obvious that this band is onto something. Sadly the recording doesn't do them justice. It actually sounds pretty good, but it's way, way too thin. The guitars are somewhat abrasive, though still heavy, but as soon as the guitars and scathing vocals kick in full blast, the drums lose some of their density and the bass pretty much disappears. And that's a shame, because these cats have a lot going on rhythmically that not only needs to be heard, but it needs to be in place to hold down the backbone of most of these songs. About halfway through the record my ears complete adjusting to the tones, but they definitely need a more beneficial mix. Less treble on the guitars, more volume on the bass… that's a start. But it's clear, they are on the right track. The layout is pretty interesting. I like the fact that you can't gauge what the music sounds like at all by the way the packaging looks. There are some nice illustrations of bears (I guess), some of which have extended necks like giraffes, and the inside of the booklet is set up like a 10-day journal (complete with entries rather than the actual lyrics), using worn paper textures and a font that sort of looks like handwriting (using actual handwriting on worn paper would have been far cooler, but whatever). "Day 8: The woods came alive… all eyes and teeth. Most of my crew is dead. I am in a cave and I hope someone finds this someday. The stars that I used to count are now the millions of eyes that haunt my sleep and I am jealous of the dead men. I found enough timber to keep whatever it is at bay with fire." This is definitely a curious record. I'd like it better if the mix was kinder to the incredible rhythm section, but it's kind of hard on the ears right now, and the writing needs to be a bit more cohesive. On a side note I must also say that I definitely respect this label for selling brand new CD's for $7ppd in the US. That fucking rules. We'll see what this band does next…
Running time - 39:45, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Verminopolis, I Dare the Sky, Sleeping With Spiders]
From Heart Attack #37:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
These guys are from my region, the Albany, NY area. The first song started off sounding a lot like Acme or something in the German metal vein. As the CD moves forward, it becomes more and more filled with Iron Maidenish double leads and crazy Slayerish parts.
The vocals are doubled and sometimes tripled. Be well prepared, this is full-on metal, for this is far from hardcore or punk. I've never seen them live but after hearing the CD, I'd be very interested in seeing these progressive metal dudes wank their instruments. This is well done.
I'm shocked Hater of God hasn't put something out by these guys. I'm wondering if these guys' graphics were influenced by Albany's Wolpack LP (ha ha). NW
From Action Attack Helicopter:
War in the Woods
Everything about Slave Union Records' Mataburro screams originality. From the creepy, glowing eyes in their cover art, to the whimsical lyrics that so subtly weave themselves into a concept album that is their freshman effort, War in the Woods.
The album itself is a story about hunters hired to make their way into a wooded area that most believe is infested with angry bears. As the album moves on, it is soon realized that the woods are indeed infested, but with a beast more heinous than any grizzly. Half-eaten animals are found at first, and then people, and then finally, we find the main character of our story surrounded, writing his last farewell as the deadly beasts surround him.
Overall this disc is an incredible attempt at a concept album — which can be said of very few concept album attempts.
The only negatives on this album are technical problems in the mixing and sound quality, and do little to take away from the overall feel and talent that this band displays. This disc is a remarkably creative effort from Mataburro, leaving the listener wondering what could possibly come next from this young band. - Jeff Petermann
From Dance of Days:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS CD
There is an awesome independently owned and operated vegan cafe/restaurant in this town called Mara Bunta. You should go there when you're in Wien. Other than a pretty similar name, Mataburro have nothing in common with them. They're metal. Three guitars, three vocalists - and they're only a five piece. Insanely heavy and brutal as fuck. You can tell that they are hardcore kids who grew up on metal and still listen to metal. There aren't any lyrics printed here, but a rather interesting conceptual story about the woods coming alive, and I felt reminded of King Diamond and his spooky bedtime story crap, only that Mataburro is way better and without any of those horrible falsetto vocals. I have no idea how serious this is supposed to be, but the cover art and the story go together very well and the music just kicks ass. It’s cool to see someone play with old metal clichés and tongue-in-cheek is always fine with me. If I didn't get the point, I can still enjoy the music and won't have to feel annoyed by some fucked up metal attitude. (tr)
From Cross My Heart With a Knife:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
This CD starts out assaulting everything and anything close. Its really really tight but its just fucking everywhere so youre not going to know what the hell is going on. All youll know is that its damn impressive. The music is unrelenting.
The rough pounding parts are sometimes broken up by evil sounding castlevania-metal guitars and even sometimes a hint of something pretty. Behind the harsh main vocals can come shrieks and screams that make it nothing less than demonic sounding. Theres singing though sometimes too. Theres tons of stuff. And thats just all in the first song. You get 10 of these on this disk.
Plain and simple, the band mixes brutal hardcore with metal and a little bit of straight up rock ...and it happens to turn out very well.
Sometimes its like an 80s metal band was kidnapped from the past to play this stuff and sometimes its just straight up crushing hardcore with metal twists. I think if this were done by any other band, I wouldnt like it at all. Mataburro is thuroughly impressive though and its like they wrote the book on how to make this kind of music. Maybe they have?
From Smother.net:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
Mataburro is the injection that is needed in the metalcore world. With complex riffs, ever-changing tempos, and innovative singing (not relying on the scream or hoarse-throated yell is a good thing), Mataburro tells a 10-day tale in the CD liner that is truly an interesting story. For some reason the album, artwork, and just feel of the band remind of that movie “The Thirteenth Warrior” maybe because of the story of man vs. beast but regardless, this is a great album with a truly original metal sound. Besides any band who names a song after one of the best board games ever— “Stratego”—is cool in my book. Ordered chaos would be a great selection of two words to describe Mataburro but even they don’t give the band the justice it commands.
- J-Sin (Note: This was an "editor's pick" -S.U.)
From Calamity Project:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
picture putting pg.99 and converge in a blender and throwing some nice metal harmonies in the mix, and this is what mataburro is. a refreshing metal/hardcore outfit that puts out genre-bending and genre-defying music, and does a very good job at it.
the songs are primarily metal/hardcore songs, but they throw in melodic singing, tinges of death metal/grindcore, and even some of those nice metal leads in their songs. they're aggressive, raw, rabid, and very unrelenting in their delivery. a lot of times when you hear bands that try to do this, they don't do it quite right, but mataburro pulls it off w/out breaking a sweat. 10 songs of this uncompromising insanity makes for a wonderful listen.
definitely somethign i wouldn't pass up. check out their mp3s on the slave union website, and pick up the record. you won't regret it.
From Scenester Online:
MATABURRO - WAR IN THE WOODS
Wow. Melodic, harmonic, crazy, screamy metal. But not simply metal. This is great. Three guitars, three singers. All blended amazingly. Now I realize the word 'amazing' is very over-used and I am just as guilty of that as the nezt person, but in this case, it is very true. They throw in influences from so many different forms of music that it is very hard to try to break it down. The intro to Stratego sounds very latin influensed to me....and are those finger cymbols I hear in the begginning of Someday Science??? EXCELLENT. The layout is creepy as hell with strange bear-like creatures and a small story in the form of a diary in the inside. I usually hate not having lyrics to look at, and although I am extremely curious as to what they are singing and screaming about, I didn't even care that there were no lyrics because the space was instead used for something just as worthwhile and interesting. I literally haven't taken it out of my cd player since I got it. And I don't see myself taking it out any time soon. Bottom line: if you don't get this cd, you are fucking stupid. –AG