Album Notes

New age metal is defined simply as "playing whatever the hell you like", according to Love Me Butch drummer Winder Singh. Love Me Butch- Winder, guitarist Wing Meng, bassist Kevin Kong and singer Syarul Reza- and their natural dynamic is all about this challenge: coming up with the best possible hard rock blend within their resources and talent.

They write with passion and often bend over backwards, and thus rarely resort to winging it: they're concise and uncompromising in metal mode (Not the One); calm and purposeful when mellow; adventurous and abandoned when experimenting (Just Started). And the music is flowery only when necessary (It's Over in Space), Six, 1000 Words).

Enter Posthuman explodes out of its ambiguous shell with the brimming new metal of its first single. The start-stop vehemence of the 'The Protector', during the rapped verse clues us in on just how much emphasis the band's rhythm section (bassist Kevin Kong and skin-basher Winder Singh) places on tightness.

The album's cover theme renders itself on a vibe most akin to Chinese opera and Japanese kabuki culture. Accordingly, there's a whole song on the record dedicated in honor of such Eastern eccentricities, and it's aptly title, 'Asian Rock Anthem', but 'Never Ending Tunnel' is the true spine-tingling gem, and chances upon that rare second of sparkling, hands-to-the-sky Love Me Butch splendor.

What must be a favourite bit of singing by star-in-the-making vocalist Syarul Reza must be in the chorus of the swelling '1000 Words'. It's at the same time cathartic, bittersweet and admirably restrained, perhaps for the sake of musical competence. Somehow, musicality manages to find its way into such raging clutter- the singer sneaks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scat somewhere in there.

On the last song on Enter Posthuman, (Of All Our Love & Hate) the record reaches its complete beauty, as Syarul's butterscotch voice rockets off from his sweet spot and into freakishly high altitudes at the end of the song. One thing that surfaces through Syarul's brazen and balanced screaming and the rest of the band's musical spirit and tenacity is special. Love Me Butch revel in style and substance, something that can't be said (frustratingly) about many other rock bands, anywhere.

High on rock, low in fat: this is something of a template-setter.