Reviews

When I first got this new album from Down, I was initially anxious to hear it. They always seemed like a good mix for a good hard rock band. With Phil Anselmo from Pantera and guitarists Pepper Keenan and Krik Windstein, I thought this album would really take off. And it almost did. But here is the main issue I have with this record, and I'll explain it like this: when I think the Misfits, I think Glenn Danzig. I can't really get into the post-Danzig (mainly Michale Graves) Misfits, and I could never really get into Danzig's solo stuff, or even Samhain, because it wasn't the Misfits. I have a similar issue here. I thought Pantera was an amazing band. But since the break up and unfortunate death of Dimebag Darrell, Pantera could obviously never come back. This band, which started as a Pantera side-project is just that. A side-project band.

The songs themselves are pretty good. Deep and heavy Southern rock with a metal attitude is the best way to describe them. However, they are like typical hard rock songs that can end up droning on and on for a bit. Some songs have a real catch inside them that keeps your head rocking back and forth, but other songs find you reaching for the skip track button. A few tracks, such as "On March The Saints" and "Never Try," have some real potential and show that the band truly is an assemblage of good hard rock musicians. It's just sometimes they don't quite hit all cylinders in all the songs. Of course it's stupid to expect a band to have every track be amazing, but a band like this, forged from such an epic past, it almost feels like there should be greatness at every turn.

This album is decent. Its a good listen every now and then but it's nothing that will stay sitting in your cd player or residing on you iPod for very long. Down is a very good hard rock band that can be very successful, but they may never be able to live up to the history of the bands they came from.