Heavy metal outfit Pounder, formed out of the gristle, bone, offal, and discontent of Exhumed, Gruesome, Carcass, and Nausea, have a hard-workin’, beer-hoistin’ platter of heavy metal/hard rock mastery you must hear. That is, to wit, new album Breaking the World out January 29 on Shadow Kingdom. Featuring vocalist/guitarist Matt Harvey, guitarist/vocalist Tom Draper, and bassist/vocalist Alejandro Corredor, Pounder, who previously had a long-player, Uncivilized, on Hells Headbangers, are out to conquer the world one fist-bangin’, catchy-chorused song at a time. Of course, that is if the rocker in you pumps candy apple-colored blood from bands like (early) Def Leppard, Manowar, Saxon, Tank and Accept, and has no issue sporting optic white high tops and baby blue Wranglers.
But enough ’80s nostalgia and wordy balladry. Pounder’s Breaking the World, as buttressed by lead-single “Hard Road to Home,” finds solace in its influences, but doesn’t marinate (or pay obvious homage to) in them. The trio are trying to carve out their own niche in the oft-cliched, mimicked genre blend, where it could be 1981 or 1989, but it’s really fucking present day. Other key tracks are: “Spoils of War,”Hard City,” and the banner title track. We teased Harvey out of his California home with Hi-C Ecto Cooler, Keebler Tribbles, and palette of candy cigarettes to comment on the incoming Breaking the World effort.
Says Harvey: “I don’t know what’s cool in the contours of hard rock–and I’m not sure I really care–but I’m into stuff like Dokken, FM, and Journey. We’re all into it. Those bands are informing what we’re doing. Obviously, we’re into Tygers of Pan Tang, Tank, Angel Witch, and Motörhead. I think Breaking the World is like a Jake E. Lee-era Ozzy record. It’s diverse. We cover a lot of ground. There’s a ballad, there’s a doomy number, there’s an up-tempo number, there’s a rock radio, hit-friendly attempt in there. I love that spirit. As much as I love From Enslavement to Obliteration, I want every song to be its own entity across the album. When you hear The Ultimate Sin, every song stands alone. That’s kind of a lost art. We’re trying to achieve that. We’re slowly getting there, I think.”
