UMUR "Extracting the Core" is the first live album by Canadian, Quebec based technical death metal act Martyr. The album was released through Skyscraper Music in 2001. In addition to the audio part of the album, "Extracting the Core" features a multimedia presentation for CD-Rom drive which includes live pictures and samples.

"Extracting the Core" features the three tracks "Inner Peace", "Hopeless Hopes" and "Prototype" from the debut full-length studio album "Hopeless Hopes (1997)" and six tracks from Martyr´s second full-length studio album "Warp Zone (2000)". Among others the brilliant and powerful title track. Martyr play a technical death metal style with varied extreme vocals and some great musicianship which includes some really excellent shredding guitar solos. Martyr´s musical approach isn´t completely unlike a more technical/complex version of Death (with a few twist and turns which provide Martyr with a sound of their own).

"Extracting the Core" is overall a pretty enjoyable affair but it´s not brilliant by any means. The playing is flawless and the vocals are strong but it´s like the atmosphere isn´t right. This could just as well have been a live in the studio recording with added muted audience noises and comments in french from the band. I´m not really feeling the sweaty and intense atmosphere that I´m sure Martyr are more than capable of creating in a live environment. With that said "Extracting the Core" is still worth a listen or two but I do prefer the studio versions of the tracks. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is fair.

Stooge This live document serves as a nice introduction to what Martyr has to offer. The material on this live album covers both albums they had released at the time. 3 songs are from Hopeless Hopes and the remaining 6 songs are from Warp Zone.

The band’s performance is very good, but the sound quality, while not totally bad, is somewhat rough on the ears. I suppose much of that could be attributed to the more aggressive nature of the material and the distortion, but the mix could have been a bit better. However, the most important factor is that the band pulls of their technical material with precision and ease, and is able to maintain a high energy level.

I’m impressed by the bonus content that is included on this CD. It contains MP3s of four studio tracks from their two previous studio albums, allowing the fan to make comparisons between their live and studio sound without needing to own one of their other albums. Multimedia content includes video clips for additional songs to give users a glimpse of Martyr on stage, as well as a mini photo gallery and bio. Being released in 2001 (pre-YouTube and other great internet resources), much of this content would have been more appreciated back then, but is still a great bonus today.

For the live recording itself, I’d give it around 3 to 3.5 stars. However being so impressed by the overall presentation and extras provided, the extra half star is well deserved. Extracting the Core is a cool live album that should appeal to thrash and death metal fans.