ASG - Blood Drive (Relapse, 2013)

ASG
Blood Drive
Relapse
2013

Rating: 7 well buckets out of 10

I'll listen to old Slayer or Metallica records with the best of them, but when it comes to new metal I'm not particularly well versed outside of a couple of bands.  When a good friend who is deep into the metal world insisted I check out ASG, I figured why not. 

I'd barely call this metal - the band and their fans may find that insulting but I don't mean it to be.  It's very melodic, more of a psychedelic hard rock than anything I think of as metal.  It's (usually) not fast enough for the classic metal definition and (usually) not dark and sludgy enough to fit into the slower metal genres like stoner rock.  The singer actually sings on most of the tracks, and does it well - not a mainstay of the metal world.  Regardless of dumb genre drawer you do or don't decide to put the band in, the record is very good.  There is a proggy aspect to their music that really works, and I'm rarely complimentary of anything proggy.  I'm diggin' it. 

Black Tusk - Set the Dial (Relapse, 2011)

Black Tusk

Set the Dial

Relapse

2011

Rating: 7 rabid elephants out of 10

Black Tusk call their sound "swamp metal" - I just call it good.  This is a more modern approach to classic eighties metal like Metallica and their ilk crossed with a whiskey bottle full of country snarl.  Assuming you can bottle snarl, obviously...I think my grandma had some in her basement next to the canned green beans.  I guess a southern version of High on Fire really, at least in general feel.  Like a thousand other good metal bands, these cats Georgia, so it's good that state gets at least one thing right.  I really dug their last record "Taste the Sin", they put on a great goddamn live show, and this album helps them continue their fine tradition of rocking balls off.  It ain't reinventing the wheel, but it's helping things run more smoothly.