A Lethal Dose Of American Hatred,
Superjoint RitualOK, anyone know who Phil Anselmo is? For those who aren't acquainted with US-style metal (faux-pas honey...) he's the vocalist (I'm going to avoid the word singer for a while) with Pantera and Down, two hefty-as-fuck metal bands. He's quite known for his propensity for side projects and Superjoint Ritual is his attempt at a hardcore band. Much of the music here could quite easily fall into either camp - hardcore or metal - because of the ease in which the music switches between heavy chugging guitar riffs and all out punk rock.
The album starts off slowly, but with an irresistable force by the name of 'Sickness', with heavy, slow-moving guitars...which then clatter into a rolling drum beat and screamed vocals smoothly. It's really very impressive, as Anselmo has perfected his growling over more than two decades and for Superjoint it's a little less heavy than for Pantera. 'Waiting For The Turning Point' is up next and once again just bludgeons the listener into absolute submission with a simple chord structure and that same, consistent drumming. There is a hint of variety in the middle-eight when the drumming becomes a lot more pronounced and metallic, but this doesn't last - within about twenty seconds we're back to the punk rock stuff.
The opening riff to 'The Destruction Of A Person' sounds like Slayer around the time of 'Seasons In The Abyss', that southern fried metal drone that characterised Pantera. To be honest It just thumps around needlessly for another couple of minutes then burns out. Unfortunately, tracks like 'Deaththreat' try to employ some fancy features like backwards guitars to pointless effect - as if the band had some money left over for production - before slipping back into the traditional formula. It seems to me that Superjoint Ritual can't decide what they're trying to do or be. The tone of the album as a whole is very metal - very pro-US, right wing stuff - but they try and marry this with a more punk style of music at times and it just doesn't sit well in my opinion.
To be honest, much of the album is extremely similar. Almost all of the songs career between a really fast punk sound and an almost sludgy metal tone, all held together by Anselmo. It's hardly a very diverse set of thirteen songs, that's why I've run out of stuff to say already. If you're a metal fan go buy Pantera or Slayer for this kind of stuff. If you're a hardcore fan go ask someone who knows more about hardcore.
Ben
