If the artist and title of this release doesn’t give you a clear idea of what this album is all about, then you can rest assured that the cover art does. Adorned with one of Ed Repka’s unique and distinctive paintings, the cover depicts a bullet-proof Arnold Schwarzenegger holding a microphone on the streets of a war torn city (Repka’s artwork has also featured on albums from Death, Megadeth, Municipal Waste, 3 Inches Of Blood, Toxik).Quite simply, Total Brutal is Austrian Death Machine’s brutal tribute to one of California’s biggest action stars.

Founded, written and performed entirely by As I Lay Dying’s frontman Tim Lambesis in between his band’s touring schedules, Total Brutal is every bit as funny, brutal and stupid as Schwarzenegger’s over the top characters on celluloid, and every bit as entertaining.

After a humorous introduction from Ahhnold himself on “Hello California,” the (one man) band crashes its way through the first official song “Get To The Choppa.” It’s a given that since Lambesis plays everything on the album, the songs aren’t going to be all that complex or deep. But having said that, there’s more than enough cheesy melody, aggressive thrashing guitars and solo work (Provided by Jason Suecof of Trivium) to make the song funny, memorable and metal.

From this point on, the album is divided between ridiculous skits around Ahhnold (with the picks being “All Of The Songs Sound The Same,” “What It’s Like To Be A Singer At Band Practice,” “Broo-Tall Song Idea” and “Not So Hidden Track”) and full-on Schwarzenegger inspired metal anthems.

On the song front, there’s not a whole lot of variation from song to song. But what it lacks in diversity, it more than makes up in pure thrashing mayhem, with “Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers” (featuring guest guitarist Mark MacDonald from Mercury Switch), “I Am A Cybernetic Organism, Living Tissue Over (Metal) Endoskeleton” (featuring guitarist Dan Fitzgerald), “Who Is Your Daddy, And What Does He Do?” (featuring As I Lay Dying guitarist Nick Hipa), “Screw You (Benny)” (featuring Suecof) and “If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It” (featuring Haste The Day guitarist Jason Barnes) the definite picks.

Total Brutal might not be deep, intellectual or particularly groundbreaking, but it is a hilariously fun listen, and totally brutal!

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