Equity - Financial Metal. (2019)

Metal never ceases to amaze me, showing that you can take some of the most mundane and sterile things in existence, and still make it relatively cool through some riffs, beats, and growls. Enter Equity, a thrash death band/solo project that is all about one thing, and one thing only, finance. The entire gimmick of Equity is taking everything that is about economy, accounting, stock markets, or anything close to that, and turn it into metal. This is just complete insanity, and I am not really sure if this is just a gimmick, if it is a joke, or if this 100% serious, because I literally know nothing else about the band. Seriously, this album just popped up out of nowhere, there are no members tied to it, and there is no link to the band what so ever. No YouTube, no Facebook, no Bandcamp, no Twitter, nothing at all, and this is only confirmed by the Metal-archives (if there is no info there, then there just is no info available). Only reason I found this is thanks to the podcast Heavy Metal Hangover, who featured it (and made silly jokes about the band throughout the episode).

Okay, enough about Equity out ghosting Ghost, let us talk about the music. As previously stated, this is a death metal record with some thrash thrown into the mix, and it is... fine. Yeah, this is far from mind blowing stuff, most of the music in here has been done before, and there is no real surprise to be had at all. With that said, the band does stick to its sound pretty well and delivers some solid metal all around. Riffs are chunky, drums hits hard, bass is deep, and the growls are textbook stuff. Do have to give some extra credit to the guitars, who at times do manage to cram out some nice solos.

The thing that do make Equity shine is obviously the lyrical content. We hear Equity speak about Brexit, the Panama papers, debt, taxes, stocks, disposable income, liability and more. This group talk like true suit wearers from Wall Street, talking in terms that I kind of understand, but do not really understand, and it is just hilarious that it is all growled. Makes you imagine how it would sound like if you hear your economic advisor speak to you like that when you meet him at the bank.

Other than that, there is unfortunately not much more positive I can say about "Financial Metal.". Well, that is half a lie, I do think it is funny that the instrumental track "Brexodus" is the longest track of the record, sort of stating that Brexit is taking forever, but it backfires because the song itself is not interesting enough to warrant the 9 minute run time. Besides from that instrument wanking, there just is not much from this record that truly stands out music wise. "Blue Chip Liability" and "Buy Low Sell Die" has some great solos, and "Figure It Out" has this cool start stop strategy that works, but everything else is pretty much similar to one another. I really wished that they had included the bonus track "Disposable Income" in the real setlist, because it would have brought some much needed speed into this record.

So revisiting my calculations, Equity is a fun, but limited, listen. The whole gimmick certainly gets you hooked, and it is worth a listen or two, but "Financial Metal." as a whole has a short life span, not lasting all too long in the minds of those who seek innovative metal. The question now is what will happen to Equity. Was this a one off thing? Will we ever get to know who created this band? Are the members actual accountants playing metal for a hobby? No matter if these questions gets answered or not, Equity is an experience, and just more proof that anything is possible with metal. It may not be worthy of a full time investment, but I suggest you keep a look out for this group in the future, just to see if their stock starts to rise.

Songs worthy of recognition: Blue Chip Liability, Buy Low Sell Die, Figure It Out

Rating: 6,5/10 Panama Papers

www.metal-archives.com/bands/Equity/3540455337