Quick Review: Job For a Cowboy ‘Demonocracy’

Job For a Cowboy is one of those metal bands that receives equal amounts of praise and hate. The group continues to keep making music and improving its sound on each album, but has never had a release that really demands attention.

2012’s Demonocracy has some brilliant guitar playing showcasing the more technical side of death metal, but there is still one major problem – none of the songs really stand out from the next.

Saturday Night Album Review: Municipal Waste ‘The Fatal Feast’

Editor’s Note: Somehow I slacked off on reviewing this album until now and we are well past the release date, but I feel like it’s worth the time still.

Municipal Waste has been tightening its thrash onslaught with each album since Waste Em’ All was unleashed on the scene in 2003. For me, the latest album The Fatal Feast – Waste in Space, falls right in line with my favorite Waste album Hazardous Mutation and slightly above The Art of Partying and Massive Aggressive in terms of all-out thrash riffage.

Interestingly enough, The Fatal Feast hits harder than past efforts, with less hooks and more straight-up crossover edge. It’s like a combo of the more serious Massive Aggressive style mixed up with the party vibe found on the aptly titled The Art of Partying which works well.

Rather than breaking the wheel on the latest disc, the band sticks to its roots of beer drinking, B-movies and occasional politics.  While the band does get serious at times, I would be lying if I didn’t admit my favorite moments on the album are during “New Dead Masters,” “Covered in Sick/The Barfer,” “You’re Cut Off,” and “The Fatal Feast” – on which longtime vocalist Tony Foresta does some of his best work yet.

What am I missing about High on Fire?

Why can’t I get into High on Fire? I mean I understand it’s kind of like stoner metal meets Motorhead with intentionally lo-fi sludgy recording quality.

I’ve seen Matt Pike live in all his “I don’t give a damn,” sweaty shirtless frontman glory. I’ve even listened to the last few albums more than once (and am currently spinning De Vermis Mysteriis right now, which I’ll admit sounds better than the last one).

I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who listen to doom metal and love this group. So if you do stumble across this post – feel free to answer.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT HIGH ON FIRE? AM I A FOOL FOR NOT APPRECIATING THIS BAND?

Album Review: Black Breath ‘Sentenced to Life’

Black Breath’s second full-length album Sentenced to Life grabs you right from the start with a drum intro and buzzing guitars on “Feast of the Damned.”

That distorted guitar tone – complements of the Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal Pedal – creates a old school death metal vibe reminiscent of Entombed, Dismember, and Grave.

Rehashing the sounds of death metal bands from the 90s would not have made Sentenced to Life a great album by itself. It’s the infusion of this sound with elements of traditional thrash, punk and hardcore that makes the record stand out from the metal norm.

Remembering Layne Staley: Alice in Chains ‘Jar of Flies’

April 5 marks the 10-year anniversary of Layne Staley’s death in 2002 and here is my commentary on one of the greatest EPs of all time – ‘Jar of Flies.’

Alice in Chain’s Jar of Flies was never intended to be released publicly, instead it was meant to be a “fun” (it’s Alice in Chains we are talking about here) acoustic studio outing for the band. However, someone must have recognized the potential of this EP as it was distributed by Columbia Records in 1994 – debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200.

Layne Staley was deep in his struggle with heroin addiction during the recording and would enter rehab shortly after. Staley continued his tradition of writing some of the darkest songs of all time by kicking off the album with ‘Rotten Apple’ and ‘Nutshell’ – which bleed Staley’s emotional torment throughout. The acoustic guitar playing by Jerry Cantrell only adds to the sense of despair on these tracks.

3 Inches of Blood ‘Long Live Heavy Metal’ is retro fun

3 Inches of Blood vaulted onto the mainstream metal scene with 2004’s Advance and Vanquish – an album that combined melodic guitars and a mix of high-pitch screaming and growling from Cam Pipes and Jamie Hooper.

Since that release, the band lost original co-vocalist Hooper, 2 bass players, and numerous drummers (Joey Jordison of Slipknot fame notably took over production and drum duties on 2007’s Fire Up the Blades).

So it’s quite a feat the band has been as consistent as it has on recent releases (Fire Up the Blades featured a heavier more polished sound, while Here Waits Thy Doom, provided a NWOBHM throwback sound). Neither of these albums were able to capture the original vibe of Advance that was just a lot of fun the whole way through – until now that is.

Overkill delivers thundering thrash on ‘The Electric Age’

2010’s Ironbound was hailed as a comeback for thrash pioneers Overkill. The album incorporated modern metal elements and crisp production to the band’s proven speed metal formula. The Electric Age builds off the awesome songwriting from the previous record – while removing any filler – to create another definitive record that may be even better than its predecessor.

From the blazing guitarwork on album opener, “Come and Get It,” to the memorable closer, “Good Night,” there is hardly any time for the listener to take a breath. The first half of the album delivers a ton of strong old school thrash tunes, but it’s the second half of the disc that really gets things stomping.