Drowning Poll‘s CJ Pierce produced Rear Naked Choke’s debut album and is back again in a supervisory role here for their new EP, American Screams, while engineer Collin Bryson steps up to the plate for the five tracks here, recorded at Fire Ant Studios in Abilene, Texas.
Heavy percussive artillery propels title track ‘American Scream’ itself , guitar riffs taking great lunging stabs as Mick Taylor (no, not the former Stones guitarist) busts a gut hurling out his contempt for the current atrophied decay of those states under the star bangled banner, and I could say King Charles would accept your apology and you could come back under his rule, but our own political Gameboys are doing about as bad a job. Take pride, come together as one, may be a hippy philosophy, but you know, I heard him sing as such while deploring other matters one may or may not agree with. Half way through it dips to a slower gurgling thrust of a sound, and gets a little more interesting in its modern metal mangling, and I’m quite fond of the rap narrative ensues therein.
Finch’s guitars give the impression they’re going for an epic fantasy feel, but power metal considerations are put aside as Don Bruton on bass, and Paul Kidd drumming put the slant on thrashing modern metal, Taylor once more opting to deliver many of his lines in spoken form, and when they’re the likes of “You have a problem, I am the solution,” you know the direction ‘Hammerfist’ is heading. ‘Long Time’ is almost mellow by comparison, a native American tribal element running through where layers of guitars rage, question, and inject a contemporary psychedelia nuance to proceedings.
While the songs found on American Screams are said to reflect the current state of the not only the United States, and beyond that the world at large, it’s not all tough love wellbeing, there’s some talk of love in there, and on ‘Bolt Main’ they hit the pedal to the metal, and give us a plain old rock ‘n roller that’s a paean to the motor vehicle; slipping back for a few bars of bolstering blues before sitting back on the riff.
The EP finishes with ‘Summer Song’ wherein the coolest elements heard previously are combined, Native American shuffling mingle with a Southern rock stance somewhere in their over heavy riffage with celebratory hooks and wrangling lead lines, as they embrace the times because those yanks with their goddamn better weather know how to “Have a party”.
American Screams is available here and can be downloaded on Apple Music and streamed on Spotify.
For more about Rear Naked Choke at RAMzine click here.
