Czar – Life is No Way To Treat An Animal – Album Review

Source // Czar - Life Is No Way To Treat An Animal

To put it simply, Czar’s self released album Life Is No Way To Treat An Animal is mental. If, when browsing through the records in HMV or surfing through iTunes or however you source your music, you think to yourself:

“I could really go for some progressive grindcore with elements of sci-fi keyboard, spoken word and acoustic guitar, all wrapped up in one easy accessible album”

….then Life Is No Way To Treat An Animal should be at the top of your shopping list!

From start to finish, the album is a fractured, chaotic, cluster-fuck. It’s brash, in your face and more challenging than Sudoku when you’re off-your-tits drunk. It’s not something you’d ever put on just to pass the time, or even want your mother to know that you listen to, as a matter of fact! However, none of these things should be considered negatives as the sheer confrontational nature of the album is so damn refreshing; keeping you on your toes, always questioning what the hell the next track has in store!

Yet, with all the different words that you can potentially use to jazz up the phrase ‘batshit crazy’, there are moments where the fragments piece themselves together into something special. “Beware the Flies, Orestes” is so open and fragile that it comes as a shock when it plays that it feels like a real treat. Like when a family member that you really don’t like gets you a banger of a Christmas present, it sticks with you!

“Canine: No Eyes, Just Teeth” is a clever spoken word track which catches you off guard before the album plunges you into the total incoherent hell of mad epic noise that is “Shark Cancer”. The vocal energy and performances from everyone are excellent, it never dies down, unless they want it to and when they do, it’s noticeable and powerful. That’s the beauty of Life Is No Way To Treat An Animal, the sheer violence connects with something primal inside, something unexplainable.

So, in short, prepare for something mindbogglingly aggressive and yet strangely subtle, that at times will kick you in the head and at times make you explore parts of your mind that you never knew existed. Just don’t let your mother know you’re listening to it because she’ll probably report you to some kind of watchlist or something! 7/10