As a metalhead born and raised in New York City, I have noticed there’s a lack of support and attention given to local metal. It seems like people think the scene ended when bands like Type O Negative, Biohazard and Anthrax made it big. But that’s far from the truth.

New York City is crawling with great, up-and-coming metal talent, and I’d like to call your attention to one band in particular, Theater of the Absurd. TOTA consist of just two members—Patrick Curley (drums, vocals, keyboards, programming, and Shakuhachi) and Mike Neumeister (guitars, bass, vocals, keyboards, and programming). These multi-instrumentalists come from Staten Island, a place where literally nothing happens.

Patrick Curley

If you haven’t heard of TOTA I wouldn’t be surprised: in true, kult fashion these guys don’t make it easy. Not only do they live in the bleak shadow of Manhattan, but they chose to release their self-titled debut on 12-inch vinyl limited to only 500 pieces. These guys also shun all mainstream promotional tools, like MySpace and even Last.FM. The only way to get any sort of updates is by going to their official homepage, where you can also purchase the vinyl.

This independent, isolationist stance is built on top of the fact that Theater of the Absurd believes its only reason for existence is to create true and honest music. As abstract as that concept sounds, if you can get your hands on Theater of the Absurd one thing becomes apparent: these guys love their metal. The album is an avant-garde trip (in the best possible sense), like sitting in a car that’s doing 150 through the Nevada desert. In the dark. Without headlights.

Mike Neumesiter

The album begins with the in-your-face, super-fast title track, which serves as the perfect intro to the album. Next is the epic “Isles of Judgment,” which boasts a droning tempo and wall-of-sound guitars that give it an early black metal vibe. However, this song is anything but slow, and Neumeister rises to the task with some lightning-fast picking. He also lays down a surprisingly bad-ass solo on the bass.

Side B opens up with eight-minute “The Raincatcher,” which, like the runt of the litter, is both the shortest and slowest track on the album. Its MIDI-sounding keyboards are weak, but Curley’s drumming is pretty mind-boggling. Fans of extremely progressive metal will love this song.

The final track is the incredible, 12-minute “The Human Puddle.” The intro has an eastern atmosphere to it, which acts as a great build-up to the pummeling riffs that kick in later. The gang vocals really add to the intensity and hint to their love of crossover like D.R.I. Curley even pulls off a solo on a Shauhachi, which is a traditional Japanese stringed instrument. All this leads to the tortured, powerful finale, complete with screams and dissonant noise.

Overall, Theater of the Absurd’s LP can be summed up with these words: metal, challenging, fast and experimental. However, I must warn you about the vocals. They are not good. The screams and the harsh vocals fit the sound perfectly, but the clean vocals are just not happening. I can only assume they didn’t find a singer on time and had to do it themselves. Also, the production is kinda lacking, too.

It’s also worth mentioning how the lyrics are presented. There are sections in the lyrics that have been omitted in the actual songs heard on the record, which have been printed in the liner for proper representation. Plus the packaging looks great, too, with cover art by Zoran Velimanovic and a logo illustrated by the legendary Christophe Szpajdel. I highly recommend buying this album. Not only will you be owning a little piece of metal history, but you’ll be supporting some bleak, head-crushing Staten Island metal! —Henry Yuan