Minus - "Halldor Laxness" @ Score! Music Magazine

	Minus - Halldor Laxness
	Location	Iceland
	Initial Impression	Icelandic hardcore? ICELANDIC HARDCORE!...These guys deserve bonus points for song titles like "Who's Hobo," "Romantic Exorcism," "Flophouse Nightmares," and "I Go Vertigo."
Notable Lyric	"I'm not for sale to my family's expectations I feel left out / I will not hide from my emotions that I have kept inside."
Factoid	Halldor Laxness is the band's third album, and second on Victory. They've played with such hardcore heavyweights as Fugazi and Sick Of It All.
Serve With	Loud volumes and headbanging - only if the need arises, of course.
Comments	This disc grows on you. The music is pretty damn heavy - be prepared for a barrage of crunchy, metal-tinged guitars, bludgeoning drums, and driving bass. It's full of inventive melodies (see "Who's Hobo," "Romantic Exorcism" for details), but also infuses some dissonant elements here and there as well, as on "The Long Face" and the truly fucked up "Last Leaf Upon The Tree" with their Soundgarden Badmotorfinger-era saxophone parts. Front man Krummi's vocal stylings are like a mix of Jay Gordon (Orgy), Daniel Johns (Silverchair), and the great Mark Arm (Mudhoney). Yet, for all the uproarious good fun seen on the first ten tracks, the album actually ends on quite a subdued, if not freaky note, with "Insomniac" and the final track, the trippy "Last Leaf Upon The Tree," which features far-away, freaky sounding female vocals.
URL	www.minus.tv
Reviewer	Janelle (7/03)