TERMINATRYX - Shadow

(A review by Barend Buitekamer)

Okay, so I’m a freelance journalist and writer, a title I’ve adopted in the mid-nineties without due qualification or shame. To date I haven’t made a cent out of my trade, but I did manage to acquire the reputation of that anarchic journalist who takes frequent dumps in the mainstream with a gleeful smirk on his face. It therefore goes without saying, that when it comes to reviews of any sort, I never do it the Ronge way. I prefer the Gonzo way, and I sincerely hope it’s what Terminatryx had in mind when they asked me to review their latest musical creation, “Shadow”.

I listened.

I loved.

Although I’ve got an intense passion for music and an insatiable desire to understand its cosmic designs, I have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever on what it takes to produce an album nor the technical aspects affixed thereto. All I know is, it’s not easy and it’s damn soul destroying work.

As it is, the music industry in South Africa is an unforgiving wasteland overpopulated with zombies with only one aspiration in their undead existence; and that’s not to consume the brains of the living but, to get their next Justin Bieber fix amidst all the mainstream melodic pollution mixed with the stench of post mortem farts. Terminatryx deserves a great deal more than just a tagline on a goth-club flyer for having survived since 2002. And never mind just surviving. This hell raising foursome prevailed and prospered, and thus they deserve some decent over exposure on international levels in the alternative scheme of things.

Oops! Did I just type the word alternative?

I’m not going to go any further than classifying Terminatryx as: persistently alternative. In my books alternative means different, not the same as everything else; in opposition to what one is used to, and that dear readers, is what makes Terminatryx stand out like a severed human finger on a vegetarian pizza at a church bazaar. Since their entry into the alternative music scene in 2002, Terminatryx remained Terminatryx... pure dark energy personified in the studio as well as live on stage. The bottom line is, they sound as good as they look and they look as good as they sound. Their new album (Shadow) will not disappoint.

The Terminatryx shadow has grown longer and darker, and will no doubt incite their fans to converge on dance floors and in front of stages across South Africa.