Right in the middle of grunge, and the hatred of all things rock and metal, this slab of awesomeness slipped out to shake everyone out of the funk they were in. Along with Pantera, they were at the head of a new wave of metal bands with a very heavy deep tone to their sound. Unfortunately for the band, it wasn’t until the release of The Blackening in 2007 that they would rekindle the flames that made them great in the first place. That’s nearly 14 years later.
The opening slams of Davidian and Old is as good as it gets – pure unadulterated metal with huge riffs and grooves. The very slow intro of A Thousand Lies is Sabbath for a modern age – a superb riff with chuggas a plenty. Blood For Blood is a fast romp with blast beats driving the groove. Block is just amazing, and a killer way to finish the album proper. Side 4 is demos and alternate takes which gets a big thumbs up from me as I’m not a fan of the etched side.
This is one of the best modern metal albums. It’s full of big fat riffs, killer grooves, and it sounds huge thanks to a great production from Colon Richardson (who was flavour of the month for a while).
A big 10/10 from The Grooveman.
