Album review : LEMMING PROJECT : Hate and Extinction, 2 CD Edition

Cherry Red [Release date : 31.07.26]

If you consider the Death Metal genre to be defined by heavily distorted, low-tuned guitars, guttural vocals, and fast blast-beats, then Lemming Project is the archetype.

This is a band – Thomas Jasjke, Torsten Zeilert, Hendrijk Vangerow, Efcimios Fintrilakis and Michael Schmale – who tried very hard not to be famous and succeeded.

These groundbreaking German metallers released two full length albums in the early nineties, on equally groundbreaking label, Noise Records, yet another label with an “interesting” history.

They are both here in this 2 CD package:

CD1 : Extinction (1991)
CD2 : Hate And Despise (1992)

Much of the enjoyment here is to be gained from running through the track list: ‘The Sperm Of The New Generation’; ‘Out Of My Ghetto’; ‘For All Suckers’; ‘Judas Billygoats’. All as ugly as the music, but, as the saying goes “beauty is in the eye…”.

From ‘Injection’s lumbering vocals and skewed strings, to ‘Rejection’s discordant axework and repetitive riffs, the debut album, Extinction, is a soundtrack of sinister sonics, unremittingly bleak, without even a hinted promise of redemption.

This wasn’t music to be liked…this was music to be loved at the band’s confrontational live shows…. by the socially aware, by the denizens of squats, by the proletariat.

The follow up, ‘Hate And Despise’ adds focus to the relative speed, darkness, and aggression that separate the better tracks here, like ‘Lost’ and ‘Manipulation’.

Beneath the surface, time shifts and grinding riffs pull in opposition to Vangerow’s exaggerated, almost cartoon growl. It’s an unlikely antithesis, but one that this time adds a surprisingly engaging dimension to the band’s sound.

The liner notes are like a lengthy chapter in a twisting tale that seemed continually to reinvent itself.

But it all came to an end, and in fact, the end came very quickly. ***

Review by Brian McGowan

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