Reviewed by Eric Saeger
In some-things-never-change news, Megaforce continues its domination over all uber-tight speed-metal bands with this one, which fits in perfectly with what Al Jourgensen and Ministry have been doing within the confines of the label. Like Ministry, the deal here is a southern-fried Texas Chainsaw death-punk approach, although these West Virginian guys (suuuure, they’re descendants of the original McCoys, as in Hatfields and the McCoys, absolutely, and I’m seriously considering buying a bridge in one of the New York boroughs) tack more toward nu-metal (‘Vampire’ is just basically Papa Roach’s ‘Getting Away With Murder’ in a fake moustache). But don’t take that as a reason to hate on these guys, as their change-ups are pretty hilarious, intentional or not (‘Playing Dead’ sounds like a zombie-fied Strawberry Alarm Clock, while ‘Empty Man’ could have been on any of the first three Kiss albums), and their real stock-in-trade is kick-assage that competes with and absolutely surpasses Staind et al in the areas of both personality and hardness.
Grade: A
