by Martin Popoff
Various Artists - For Those About To Rot: A Tribute To AC/DC
(Dwell)This one's of some intrigue simply because AC/DC songs done deathly just might work, given their un-extinguishable melody, open spaces and irresistible catchiness. They cannot be obscured. And for the most part that's what happens here, bands like Assisting Sorrow, Colp, Deamon and Wasteland turning the band's fun rock catalogue into something still considered fun by extreme folk, creating sounds somewhere bisecting and trisecting Soilwork, Six Feet Under, Shadow's Fall and Witchery. Others like Lesser Known, Vladimirs, Enertia and Dementia play it too close to the vest and thus unremarkable, sounding like the originals in need of a shave. On the left hand path, there's deathsters who do a pretty good job of killing the wigglers, Neurosilence and Locomotive disemboweling their choices until they sag and get sad. My suggestion would have been not to let any straight re-tellings on this thing. But as expected, deathgrindthrash versions of these songs are quite amusing and even useful.
Rating 7Drunk Horse - Drunk Horse
(Man's Ruin)This one's been out for a little while, but, hey, they're touring all summer and they're good people. Anyway, sure glad folks somehow keep finding interesting ways to make stoner rock. Glad but incredulous. Anyway, Drunk Horse remind me of the real thing, not the Sabbath stuff, but all the fringe bands from '70 to '72, only these guys have you imagining you've found the one rarity that is actually heavier than Deep Purple, but not as deliberate as the Sabs. It's almost like a metal version of Alice Cooper's Love It To Death, or a really metal version of Easy Action or Pretties For You, somewhat disassembled like '60s psyche but smothered in oven-mitted Kiss-like power chords, mebbe closer to the final two Amboy Dukes hamhockers. File with Leadfoot, Terra Firma and Clutch, all being time-travellers into an era where much metal was purely accidental, mental and occidental.
Rating 7.5
