This might become my favorite metal album of this year. It’s a hell of an album out of the blue. Black John Wayne? Are you kidding me, don’t you? And the answer is, well, no. This is absolutely serious shit. And brilliant. They delivering a killer combination of metal, hardcore and eventually sludge (and even sometimes blues) which sounds like a brutal collision between Slayer, Sick Of It All and Down. This is absolutely deadly! Trust me on this one. It’s been a while since I was excited that much by a metal release, altrough I had listen a lot of interesting products, some of them were quite heavy while others were gloomy and experimental. But this is different: quite groove oriented, full of hardcore energy and armed with cutting edge metal riffs, but also introducing some southern spirit and black musical ingredients (with roots back to blues and gospel), Black John Wayne are both groove and harmony oriented, managed to combine brutality and traditional taste-like musical elements resulting a quite original post-hardcore conglomerate.
Formed in November of 2008, Black John Wayne are an extreme metal project made up of members of upstate New York’s scene veterans: Last call , Execution Style, Politics Of Contraband and Conflict Of Interest. Breaking away from their previous bands TROY CORE traditions, Ralph Renna – vocals, Brian and Mike Luciano – guitars, Ed Woodka – bass, and Brad Simon- drums, merged thrashy hardcore with jammy blues and “Serenade Of The Black And Blues” seems to be a murderous debut effort.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVB63fA7Tkg&w=545&h=307]
Almost 50 minutes of intensity, no fills. Brilliant and brutal.
Tracklist:
01. Dead Man’s Dance (5:00)
02. Wrong Arm Of The Law (4:07)
03. Tumbleweed (4:48)
04. Dirty Bible (2:58)
05. Rattlesnake Blood (3:46)
06. Pistol Whipped (3:15)
07. I Am Fear (2:26)
08. The Silver Badge (6:23)
09. Hurricane (3:23)
10. Ghost Town (3:13)
11. Roadkill (1:52)
12. Burning Down The Saloon (4:49)
13. Serenade of the Black and Blues (3:23)
13 songs – all of them potential favorites. Still, my picks are “The Silver Badge”, the Pantera reminiscences full “Roadkill” and the brutally pulsing “Wrong Arm Of The Law” with an excellent, singable chorus, the Slayer like evil “Rattlesnake Blood”, the quite Down-ish “Hurricane”, the settled tunes of the title track. But I love all of their 13 tracks and this is an album worth to devour it and a band to keep an eye on.
Black John Wayne – Official Site
Black John Wayne @ MySpace
Black John Wayne @ Reverbnation
Black John Wayne @ Facebook
Black John Wayne @ Twitter
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvj8Jf4Sb_c&w=545&h=307]
Thank you for the kind words We worked hard on this record- 2 years in making.. thanks from myself and the band
Ralph -Black John wayne
I thank you! It’s a great-great album!
Behind each outstanding release always are years of work. I remember that before “Cowboys From Hell”/”Vulgar Display of Power”, Pantera worked almost a decade to reach that sound and style and blow up the metal scene.
So, while I’m rather musician than a journalist, I try to support as I can the scene and I write what I believe even if sometimes some of the artist hate my guts for this… It’s not your case, obviously.
Best Regards,
Attila