The Showdown: Blood In The Gears

Alright, time for one of my favorite bands that aren't Christian! Yes, that's right, The Showdown is NOT a Christian group, much to everyone's belief. The guitarist of the group, Josh Childers, has said in interviews that they are not a Christian group. But we're not here to talk about weather or not they're Christian, we're here to talk about the music! I know that I say that I don't do reviews of non Christian bands, but in this case, I'm willing to make an exception. I bought this album about a week or so ago, and I've got to say, I like it a lot. Temptation is still one of my favorite albums by them, but in my humble opinion, Blood In The Gears is their best thus far. The entire album just flows very well, and if your like me and have listen to they're past three albums, Chorus of Obliteration, Temptation Come My Way and Back Breaker, you can here the same style in this song, but its become more matured.

I'd have to say that my favorite track on the album is a tie between three different songs:

The Man Named Hell
Diggin' My Own Grave
And the bonus track, which has no title.


Now being a Christian Metalhead Biker, this album is going to be a favorite of mine. The Man Named Hell is my personal favorite out of the three I like, because it has a bike revving for an intro, that actually works as the basic drum line for the remainder of the song.


Diggin' My Own Grave is another one of my favorites because I like the sound and the feel. I didn't know that Showdown had a southern style flair to the music until I heard this song, seeing that I haven't listened to Temptation in quite some time. And I've gotta say, it sounds pretty awesome.


The bonus track on the album, which came up in my Zune software as "Untitled" is another favorite of mine, simply because of the intense feel of it. I've been a Showdown fan ever since Chorus, the first song(s) I ever heard by them being their cover of Carry On My Wayward Son, originally by Kansas, and Dagon Undone.


My personal view on this album is that it's awesome. I'm always in the mood for some good thrash, and The Showdown delivers with Blood In The Gears as a whole, and I personally cannot wait to see what they are going to do next.

As always, I'm your host, Wattako.

Demon Hunter: The World is A Thorn

Genre: Metalcore



What can be said about DH? Well, for the genre, they are one of my favs. I don't like much metalcore, but DH is one that always comes to mind when I think of it, right before Five Finger Death Punch. I first heard these guys a few years ago. Didn't know much about them at the time because I was still in a Sophomore in high school. Storm The Gates was my favorite album and still is. I like the brutality of Storm The Gates, and the combo with the title track and Lead Us Home is excellent. What I like about The World Is A Thorn is the sound.

But why the sound? Simply because, to me, it has more of a Thrashy feel to it which is an upgrade for DH. I haven't really spent the time to sit and listen to the album in its entirety, but from what I've heard its a god sound for DH with Just Breath being my fav. And no, its not just because Christian Älvestam is guest vocalizing on it, its the all around sound of the song, the structure and the complexity it brings. If you know me, you that Älvestam is my favorite vocalist. But his addition doesn't make it top for me, as awesome as he is. I've listen to all of DH's album, and I have to say that TWSAT is by far their most complex piece of work. Another one of my favorites on the album would have to be Collapsing, featuring Björn "Speed" Strid. I've taken a listen to Björn's band Soilwork, originally being called Inferior Breed, but they changed the name to Soilwork meaning "working from the ground up" according to Wikipedia. I have mixed feelings about them. Not my favorite group, but maybe I need to look into them more.

And as far as their debut goes, not many bands of this genre have a good debut like DH does. One of my favorite songs of DH is Though The Black, simply because of how raw it sounds. Most metalcore has a very raw feel to it, and most of the time in my opinion, it sucks because the band either trying too hard or not enough. A lot of people will debate between which band is better between DH and another one of my favs, Becoming The Archetype. And I have to say, the arguments that ensue from it are arbitrary and ridicules. So what if you like BTA over DH? Not one is better than the other, for their respective genre's they are both awesome.

That's my input on the whole "DH VS. BTA" crap. Both are amazing bands and they both bring their own feel to the metal community. Back to the task at hand, DH has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, and really they are underestimated. Thorns is one of their best songs. What I like about DH is Ryan Clark, the lead vocals. The man can sing when he wants to, but at the same time can deliver powerful metalcore screams. Carry Me Down is a BEAUTIFUL song, as well as a few other songs of the style. I really apprichiate DH Because they aren't all about power and raw energy, like most bands of the genre. They have some good songs that I would consider to be ballads, just from the feel I get from them.

All in all, DH is a good Christian Metalcore band. Underestimated? Without a doubt. Good? Hands down one of the best of the genre.

As always, I'm your host Wattako. Stay Shockey and God bless.

New Band (less then three years formed) Review!

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you, The Few Against Many. They are once again a Melodic Death Metal group, led by quite possibly my favorite vocalist in the Death Metal industry, Christian Älvestam.

Now as I listen to this album, I find the distinctive traits of Christian: intense and sometime brutal vocals, good guitar work, screams etc etc etc, that one would notice in some of his current bands (i.e. Solution .45, Miseration) as well as in his past bands when he was still with them. Scar Symmetry is the only good band (in terms of past bands) that I've listened to with Christian being lead vocals. The man is extremely talented. Not only does he deliver intense growls and death vocals, but he's also an accomplished clean vocalist as well.

When you say the name Christian Älvestam in the metal community, most people immediately think old SS(look up their album Holographic Universe, it is my favorite SS album with Christian, Pitch Black Progress being second). Now that he's with bands like Miseration and TFAM, not to mention the super-group Solution .45 with another one of my favorite vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jani Stefanović who is mostly known for his work with my favorite Symphonic Power Metal group DivineFire.

The album for TFAM is titled Sot, and from what I can tell its a very good album. It's a little over a half hour long, the songs averaging at about four minutes in length, the longest of them being close to seven minutes.

As far as which song is my favorite, it's hard to tell. The entire album is good in my opinion. I can't find one song that I don't like.

And now comes the part where I rate the band:

Vocals: 8.5.
The reason I give Christian only an 8.5 is because honestly I've heard better. I like him growling, but I love when at least a song or two has some cleans. This album, unfortunately has none which is a bummer for me simply because of how good Christian can hit the notes he hits. He's no Rob Rock, but then again, who is?

Musical Structure: 9
I give this album a 9 because no album is perfect, just like no band in perfect. No matter how hard you try you will never make a "perfect" album. A prime example of that is Impellitteri's album Wicked Maiden. It took the band almost five years to complete the album, mostly due to the fact that Chris kept feeling as if he could do better. And I like it when a band or artist pushes themselves to do better. Because it tells me that they're serious about it. But I'm sure that as happy as Chris is with the album, I'm pretty sure there are some things he wishes he did, some things he wishes he did better and some things he didn't want to do at all.

Lyrical Structure: 8

An 8. Why you would ask? Because, while they stuck to the theme, the words where hard to understand even for Christian. Most of the time, I can decipher what he's saying, but for whatever reason it may be, be it production, mixing of the tracks, whatever, it was harder for me to understand.

Style: 8
Again? 8? Really? I know, a lot of 8's this time around. For the style they do, I was kind of disappointed in TFAM. I've heard better, but I've also heard worse(new SS). For whatever reason, I just wasn't as impressed with this band in terms of style. Maybe its because a good chunk of the music I listen to is Melodeath, maybe I'm starting to get bored of Melodeath, who knows? Anyway, they get an 8 for the debut album. I can't wait to see what these guys do.


Total rating: 9.5

Not bad for a band only three years young. Like I said, I've heard a lot worse...But, on the other hand, I've also heard much better.

As always, I'm your host, Wattako. Stay Shockey.