Waste Down Rebels are a modern hard rock band, out of Frederick, Maryland, seemingly a one-man outfit who present a hard-hitting front to the world, and on this new album, they come across as a high-energy band with plenty to say about the present state of the world and society.
These rebels present their fourth offering, Mercies and Curses, which platitudes about love and peace and true love conquering all. The starting point for this album is “we live in a time where hypocrisy runs rampant and where accountability for actions is non-existent”. Their answer to this malaise? We all have to “reach into ourselves and to reconnect with the higher power and strength residing in us all.” There’s a clean cut line of delineations between good and evil, and every individual is quite aware of where they stand.
The music on this album is as hard hitting as the lyrics, though the riff-based music’s much easier to understand, which is more than can be said for many of the lyrics, written mostly by Lillian Axe’s Steve Blaze, whose writings and songs convinced Rebel Mainman Rick Ayers this was the way forward for the new album.
Album opener ‘Let My People Go’ is an incessant rocker with a driving drumbeat propelling it onwards, and lyrics which require a little interpretation .. “I sent amens from the tongues of blinded sheep, it doesn’t pack a sting, it tends to make me weep”. No, I don’t get it either. ‘Slave The Day’, released as a single, was written as a rallying cry for those who’re tired of the path this world’s taking. As they claim “Gone are the days of higher thoughts and greater expectations”. This was at least understandable.
When the rebels rock, they go all out for it. ‘Fork In Your Tongue’, ‘Day We Take Our Own’ and ‘Everyone Wants It All’ are all fast paced rockers, with ‘Fraction Of The Hole’ and ‘One Minute Closer’ veering towards thrash metal with some intense riffing. They inject a little variety though when they cool things down with a pair of quieter tracks, with ‘Seasons’ “..sweet memories of the day when the summer set me free, then the winter fell and brought the pain, .. and Solitude, where someone was blinded by their sentiment, wake to find the goat was me.“
This is all good basic stuff, but it doesn’t set the pulses racing as there are barely any tracks which stay in the head, even after a few listens.
