2006-12-07
I have to start by saying something here, just to be fair with the band. Even if vocalist Ben Loop would have sang in fucking
My Chemical Romance, I would still buy the album; the guy has one of best voices I've heard in a long, long time.
Luckily enough, this isn’t some shitty emo band, these guys are blue collared, bona-fide hard rockers, American sounding, booze drinking and hard edged, this album is grade A hard rock that just screams for a big label to release it, it's just that good.
The album starts out with the heavy "Suckerpunch", a groove-laden piece with some great memorable riffs that have the
Pantera southern tinge, its all quite catchy, doesn’t try to over exert itself, its just simple fun, heavy and well put together. Extra markers for the sound, quite raw and not too flashy, it sits in well with the band. The song also features a nice lead section; it's also short and to the point.
"Mud To Dust" brought to mind some elements of Grunge, probably because of the clean guitars in the verses, but the chorus is more heavy hard rock. I really liked the guitar licks in between too, guitarist Ray J. Ro Rokicki certainly listened to some Dimebag in his life, his playing really brought the great, lamented genius to mind.
I usually go into spasms upon encountering a ballad, but "Holy One" just works, acoustic guitars and one hell of a performance by Loop, there are some nice keyboard carpets in here as well, again, it just works.
One serious surprise here is a rockin' version of Cliff Richard's "Devil Woman", I always though this song has a good potential for a metallic version,
Cradle Of Filth tried their hand and made an abomination of it, but American MotherLoad pull it off and make it sound their own.
A final word, this is one of the finest hard rock albums I've heard in awhile, the world needs to know these guys, one of the finest bands to come out of the US in the last few years.
Alon Miasnikov
