HEAVY
METAL MUSIC 2013 (Chophouse Records)
- Standouts:
'Soldierhead', '...As the Crow Flies', 'Ampossible', 'King of the
Underdogs', 'Nocturnus', 'Long Time Dead'
At
least it does what it says. Heavy Metal
Music is definitely heavy metal music. But what
happened to Jason Newsted? Or this band, uh, Newsted, for that
matter? I mean, obviously he was in Metallica for many years, and
later Ozzy's band and Voivod. Plus he had that alternative rock
project, Echobrain. In 2012 I remember hearing 'Soldierhead', which
featured on this record the following year and I really liked what I
heard. Then the album came out, great stuff. Then, randomly, the band
split shortly afterwards, Jason disappeared from public eye
completely for at least a couple of years and returned in 2016 with
some acoustic project called Jason Newsted and the Chophouse Band
*sigh*. Maybe he went a bit nutty in that space of time? I wanted to
hear more material from this band dammit!
With
this band, he handles vocals and bass (naturally). I'd never heard
him sing before, so it was interesting to hear what he was capable
of. He's not a great vocalist by any means; he sorta has this raspy,
Lemmy-like thing going, but it suits the tunes for sure. Musically,
the album is a bit like 90's Metallica and old-school speed metal
thrown in a blender. Nothing too fancy, but the album is consistently
good throughout. It's pretty clear the man wasn't trying to break any
new ground, rather just write quality metal songs. The riffs are
solid, with the faster songs like 'Soldierhead', 'King of the
Underdogs' and 'Long Time Dead' having their own flair and the more
mid-tempo tracks (eg. 'Heroic Dose', '...As the Crow Flies',
'Ampossible') sounding similar to Black
Album-era Metallica, or maybe even some of their newer
stuff (Hardwired). Aside from
Jason's vocals of course, he sounds nothing like James Hetfield. On
the whole I liked this album, and I can't believe how fast he ended
the band. I genuinely thought this band were a great find among newer
metal bands, but alas, I don't think we're gonna see another Newsted
record, unless it's some sort of hillbilly acoustic matter.
Apparently they pretty much recorded a second album, but for whatever
reason, he never released it.
Adam's rating: 7.5/10
Adam's rating: 7.5/10
