Metal fans are so particular that Toxic Holocaust’s seemingly innocuous change in logo and cover art (opting for black and white this time around instead of the usual radioactive neon of covers past) nearly started a rash of hangings by bullet belt across the whole of the thrash world, an overreaction not experienced since Metallica took a trip to the barber shop (although something has to explain the music that followed, I suppose). Add to that the fact that Mr. Toxic Holocaust himself, Joel Grind, brought a full band into the studio to help pull off what he usually does alone, and you can pretty much taste the vile panic. But one spin ’round the ol’ graveyard gravel pit and it’s abundantly clear that Toxic Holocaust are as evil and furious as ever before, so I’d urge anyone with any doubts as to Conjure and Command‘s integrity and legitimacy to take their skullets out of the noose, crush a million fucking beer, and mosh their neurotic aggression into oblivion. Every one of the 10 songs here drip with toxicity and disease, a battery of riffs as sharp as wolves’ teeth, and will send you straight into Hell, all clenched fists and burning eyes, on a mission to desecrate the underworld. And don’t worry if you’ve got an old logo patch on your denim jacket when you do, that will just earn you extra desecration cred with the souls of the damned .
It’s been four years since their last album, but Weedeater’s Jason…The Dragon finally sees its release, no doubt a welcome relief to vocalist/bassist “Dixie” Dave Collins whose shotgun-cleaning accident in January of 2010 left him without a big toe and delayed the album’s recording. Now, I never heard word whether the toe was successfully reattached or whether he blew it to smithereens and is altogether toe-less (or how this incident affected his relationship with his “favourite shotgun”), but it seems Collins’ sacrifice was not in vain because the North Carolina trio (completed by Dave “Shep” Shepherd on guitar and Keith “Keko” Kirkum on drums) has come out the other side of the whole mess with a real nasty bite to ‘em. That’s not to say that Weedeater weren’t as viscous as a frothing rottweiler before with all that feedback n’ fuzz, but Jason seems to find the band one step closer to oblivion; they’ve taken the Southern-fried sludge of earlier albums, dipped it into a big ol’ bucket of doom, and are spit-roasting it over Hell’s hot fires for maximum evil flavour. I mean, the quad shot of “Hammerhandle,” “Mancoon,” “Turkey Warlock,” and “Jason…The Dragon” all sound like Satan mowing over eternally damned souls atop a John Deere while a Motörhead record melts off a turntable into a hot, thick corrosive mess. For tradition’s sake, though, they manage to slip some back porch numbers in there, like the rubbery “Palm and Opium” and the album’s instrumental closer “Whiskey Creek” (complete with the sounds of crickets and rain), and the album title’s play on words (in line with …And Justice for Y’all and God Luck and Good Speed) shows that even without a full slew of digits, the band has kept that (now forked) tongue planted firmly in their tobacco-stained cheek.
Are Mastodon the best heavy metal band in the ’00s? Maybe. Just maybe. If not, they’re definitely right up there and all these “new wave” metal bands that I listen to today have certainly taken some cues from the mighty Mastodon. They bring it all to the table: power, technique, melody, riffage, beard, and unholy mountain madness. They’ve never faltered, never failed — not for one album, not for one song. Where previous efforts saw the band taking giant, crushing strides over land and sea, Crack the Skye is a cosmic hellfire, an astral, spiritual journey right into the centre of oblivion. Mastodon’s long, strange tales have conquered every plane and this, their last release of the decade, proves once again that they also conquer the metal world.
Check out the video for “Oblivion” from Crack the Skye!
Toxic Holocaust
Weedeater
#4 Mastodon – Crack the Skye