For BARONESS, yellow and green make… well, yellow-green. They release the very non-metal (in the traditional sense, at least) double CD Yellow and Green on Relapse. There’s a lot of music to preen through here, and it’s kind of hard to put a feather on the thing as a whole; one should really take a look at this as two separate pieces. Yellow definitely hints at the band’s heavier roots; there are the John Baizley guitar parts and a lot of singing. Even though the cocktease of the build-up is there, it never hits the money shot; that is to say, the build-ups go into what one might hope would be some killer heavy riffing, but never quite get there. This aspect will be a little disappointing to older fans, but fans of Baizley’s guitar acumen will still be thrilled. Green has a slightly different vibe; again, not very heavy, a little more psych-ish and meandering into mellow parts that kind of go nowhere, but are at least effective. All of this said, the record is OK. Fans won’t be let down, but people that want to rock the peck out certainly will be. 6 FUCKING PECKS
Where does HEXEN get their name? The movie Haxan? The video game? The plural of “hex”? I guess it doesn’t matter. Being and Nothingness certainly isn’t going to usher in the new reign of thrash metal. To call this pure thrash metal wouldn’t be fair, as there are elements of melody, death and prog in these songs. Although these soloists can shred–and they like to show you–the solos really stick out, like volume-wise; where’s the actual good riffing, boys? The riffing is banal and pretty stale, but they can SOLO, if you didn’t catch that. The drummer sounds like he can really play, but the drum sound is pretty sterile, and the singer has a pretty good death rasp, but it gets a bit tedious at points. Not bad, not great. 5 FUCKING PECKS
STAM1NA, WOW have you ever heard a band so bad that you don’t understand why someone would put 1t out? Th1s 1s utter rad1o metal garbage; at least they are F1nn1sh and m1ght have an excuse for be1ng so lame. This is a step away from S1ipknot, F1ve F1nger Death Punch and crap l1ke that. 1 mean, they have a “1” instead of an “I” 1n the1r name. Nocebo 1s not for you, unless you TOTALLY suck; then, by all means, p1ck th1s up. Th1s should appeal to the k1ds that don’t “get” extreme metal who m1ght have p1cked th1s up from a Hot Top1c because 1t looked cool. L1sten for yourself, SPO1LER ALERT: MAN ASS 1n th1s v1deo. 1 FUCKING PECK
That’s it, no old-school peck this week. I feel uninspired…
