Sometimes it’s hard to come up with different ways to describe the same shit. I mean, really, in the damn near forty years since Sabbath laid the groundwork for all that is metal, just about every style, genre, and sub-genre has been done to death. Thrash, death, black, grind, metalcore, etc etc et-mutha-fucking-cetera. Within genres, there’s a basic template that is followed and except for the masters of the form, 90% of bands could be described with the same cut-and-paste review. Case in point, the DRT debut of Dixie-bred rawkers Artimus Pyledriver.
Have you ever heard Zeke? The Bronx? The Bars? Turbonegro? Valient Thorr? Alabama Thunderpussy? Nashville Pussy? No? Then go pick this up. If you are familiar with those other bands at all then there’s really no need to seek this out. What we have here is your standard Motorhead/AC/DC/C.O.C. mashup which is to say full-on balls-to-the-wall rawk’n’roll inflected with a little bit of punk influence and not even a hint of nuance, subtlety, or originality. Hell, even the singer sounds like a Brian Johnson clone. Does this mean that they suck? Not really. It rocks, certainly, but it also lacks the personality of the better bands in this genre. This form of hard rock, while admirable from a pure ass-kicking, “let’s throw something on the stereo while we pound some brews” point of view, has always left me feeling a little empty. It’s like stoner-rock without the groove and feel. If you’re into this style, you’ll eat it up even though you’ve heard it a thousand times before. Decent but far from essential.