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Jeez, I've been sitting on this one way too long. I was going to
have it coincide with an interview I did with the band, but they were
visibly tired from being on the road, and I don't ask the standard
20 when I do an interview, so they couldn't go on autopilot and weren't
terribly interested in my questions, and about halfway through, I
wasn't anymore, either. The resulting mess has been buried at the
bottom of the dung heap where it belongs.
This album however, deserves its due. Two guys from Pittsburgh, PA,
Paul and Phil, have created a loud, driving, monster
of a sound that could almost be mistaken for a four-piece band. They're
a three-piece now that, live, doesn't sound much different than before,
but bands like this tend to obliterate their music (along with everyone's
hearing) when they play it in crappy little venues. A new album will
prove one way or the other whether Jason is a useful addition
to the line up or not. The novelty of being a two-piece will be lost,
regardless though.
When I was in high school, oh too long ago, we had some sort of "ditch
day" celebration cooked up by our wily Principal Blackman (comprendesvous?)
to keep the seniors from wandering Colfax Avenue rather than trying
to coast through the last three weeks of school. One of these lures
to keep us campus-bound was an old car donated by the auto repair
class that we could pay two bucks for five minutes with a sledgehammer.
Oh, what sweet destruction... Thunder & Lightning is THE
soundtrack for that great festival of sweaty-palmed, carnivorous glee
where nerd, social outcast, and jock alike could take their turns
venting their testosterone-fueled frustrations on some helpless inanimate.
Paul Quattrone's drumming is the repeated thud of hammer on
hood, as wild and destructive as a farm tractor getting tossed around
by a Texas Twister. Phil Boyd's grinding guitar and screeching
vocals are the explosions of glass and the ripping laceration of upholstery
draped in the sinister minors of no-good thuggery. This is badass,
bash-yer-fuckin'-skull-in music for badass, bash-yer-fuckin'-skull-in
people. And what better place for this twisted-metal-train-wreck sound
to come from than Steel City itself?
Ok, so maybe Thunder & Lightning won't directly turn you
into some sort of rough-hewn hoodlum out with his droogs, but what
better excuse have you got than:
The music made me do it!
-JD
Track Listing:
1. Crows
2. Thunder & Lightning
3. Predator
4. Electronic Sorcerer
5. Tongues (Everybody's Got One)
6. Ants in My Hands
7. Slow Death
8. The Other Direction
9. Gemini Twins
10. The Guest
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