New
wine in old barrels sometimes tastes good that is what these American youngsters
must have thought. What they serve here is almost a perfect mix of Pantera,
Black Stone Cherry, Mastodon and Disturbed but with just enough of their own ideas.
The
opening riff of "Words of Wisdom" immediately grabs you by the balls, the
crunchy riffs in combination with the groovy tempo and the aggressive
sand-papered vocals of Larado Romo is the perfect opening track and tells you
what you can expect from the tracks to follow. "New Southern" is a little slower,
but again with an excellent groove and an ideal song to shake your head to. With
several songs I had to think of Skintrade's debut album, not that they play the
same style, but more because certain songs give me the same addictive feeling.
That the album is called 'New Southern' isn't a coincidence either, in several
songs they add elements of 70s southern rock. "Black Heartbeat" is a softer
track and not only the vocals make me think of the band Nickelback. After this
little resting point the band carries on with their groovy crunchy guitar driven
songs. I guess that fans of bands like Black Label Society, Disturbed, Black
Stone Cherry, Mastodon and perhaps even a few Pantera fans will lick their
fingers when listening to this album.
If
you think that Nickelback sounds too wimpy and Pantera is just too heavy, this
might be just the middle road you like to follow. This young band's debut
promises a lot and creates high expectations for future albums.
