The Showdown – Blood In The Gears
Southern metal is arguably one of the most hit or miss genres out there. Sometimes you get pure, southern fried, audible carnage walking the same line as Alabama Thunderpussy or Texas Hippie Coalition. Other times, the result will be a bit less exciting. Southern metal, by nature, is rebellious, powerful, and usually injected with pure testosterone, so when it fails to musically satisfy, it comes across as a rather lame attempt at machismo. Blood In The Gears is one of those attempts.
Hailing from Elizabethtown, Tennessee, (It’s pretty southern there, trust me) The Showdown has shown fair amounts of style change with their previous albums. In their past works, they switched from sounding hardcore-ish to more of a southern rock then incorporating more heaviness into their music resulting in the southern metal you’ll hear in Blood In The Gears. As a fan of Back Breaker, I was eager to see what this five-piece had for me this time.
Keeping in mind the band’s sub-mason-dixon line roots, the album opens quite fittingly with “The Man Named Hell”. The rumble of a perhaps chromed-out Harley-Davidson greets the listener before settling into a rhythmic pattern, only to be matched by guitarists Josh Childers and Patrick Judge (also of Demon Hunter). Awesome, right? Well, it would be, if the guitar riff wasn’t utterly forgettable. I found myself thinking what a huge letdown it was, and the rest of the song really didn’t help the cause. The track is plain, boring, and generic– a trend which is carried on by almost the entire album.
Blood In The Gears’ single saving grace is the fourth track, “Take Me Home”. Slower than the majority of the album, the song does have a very catchy vocal arrangement. David Bunton has your classic power voice, but it is very rarely used in a way where the listener can really appreciate it. But for a band with as much experience as The Showdown, an album with merely one gem is sad.
The Showdown’s biggest problems seem to lie mainly within the guitar-work. The majority of riffs are overused and uninspiring, for instance, Blood In The Gears’ own title track opens with such a mediocre and juvenile guitar riff, I had to check and make sure I was still listening to The Showdown. To top it off, it seems as if they decided to just throw a random pinch-harmonic anywhere they needed a quick breather, even on “Take Me Home”. Because the album didn’t have enough to drag it down already, the band chose “Diggin’ My Own Grave” as the closing track. Starting off as an acoustic track for the first 1:40, it wouldn’t be so bad if Bunton had a pleasing soft voice. However, he is much better suited for his usual driving and strong modal register, as shown as soon as the track picks up. When it does, the song isn’t terrible, but it is held down by lackluster guitar-work yet again.
The Showdown seem to have lost their identity in Blood In The Gears. While their genre is still familiar, they’ve gone from a brand new bottle of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 to bootlegged bottle of bad moonshine, if you will. My dearest hopes are for this band to bounce back and prove me wrong, but for now, Blood In The Gears is merely more dead weight on Southern metal.
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19 Comments
August 21st, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Dang man! Good review. Kinda disappointing though, I loved their last album…was fully expecting something great again. Oh well.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 21st, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Exactly. Back Breaker was great, I was sooooo disappointed in this. Thanks mate!
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August 21st, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Unfortunately, I agree with you on this review. I too, thought Back Breaker was phenomenal and this album just doesn't have the same intensity and recklessness that their previous album had. This sounds almost too commercial for my liking. The only highlight of this album would have to be "Bring It Down," which reminded me most of those Back Breaker days. Nice review!
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 22nd, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Thanks mate, well said.
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August 21st, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I LOVE this album…pure groove metal in the vein of Pantera with a little Black Stone Cherry thrown in the mix.
4.5 out of 5 from me.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 21st, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Glad you enjoy it! /,,/
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August 22nd, 2010 at 4:29 am
great album 4/5
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August 22nd, 2010 at 8:31 am
I love The Showdown, but, the biggest problem I have with them is they never seem to know what style they want to be from one album to the next. I have every album dating back to A Chorus of Obliteration and boy what a difference from then to now. They remind me of The Almighty and how they changed styles on just about every album. It's all fine and dandy to do that, but when you alienate some listeners every couple years (with a new record) it's not a good thing.
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 22nd, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Exactly. I'm noticing that not many fans of Back Breaker or Temptation Come My Way like this one. However, some who hated all of their other album like this. I didn't think A Chorus Of Obliteration was that great, but you know how it is.
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the guy replied:
September 23rd, 2010 at 5:27 pm
A Chorus of Obliteration was their best album by far. Much more unique and interesting than any of their others. Much more heavy and melodic. But, to each his own I guess. ALSO, I do have to say ANY of their songs sound a lot heavier and better live. They put on a great show.
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August 22nd, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I have to admit, I've never listened to The Showdown, but this album is certainly not impressive. I listened once and that's all I could take; and I love southern metal. Oh well…
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Anthony Gannaio replied:
August 22nd, 2010 at 8:54 pm
It definitely doesn't stick out whatsoever. Very disappointing. :-/
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August 23rd, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I love all "The Showdown" albums, including "Chorus, so I guess I'm an anomaly
I agree with Lee that the band seems to "struggle" with their identity from album to album, but at the same time this new one isn't anything they haven't done already. They've just stripped it down to southern fried groove metal, something they've always had, but with other styles thrown in (melo-death, thrash, radio rock). I think the riffs on this album are simple, but are heavy and to the point, no frills…just groove. For what they wanted to accomplish on this album, I think they've absolutely nailed it.
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August 23rd, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Agree with the review. After multiple spins this album really doesn't have much to offer that hasen't been done before… and done better. Not that I had that high of hopes anyway since I haven't liked much by them since ACOO (which I thought was a great record…) but I was hoping that the new members would bring some of that sound back but meh. Speaking of which, that's the reason they have such an identity crisis on each album… each album is done by almost a whole different band, save for david, cuz of all the band member turnover… it especially sux even more cuz david is a pretty damn good, versitile vocalist w/ a good voice… just can't get a stable group of creative musicians to play the music to go with his voice!
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Nate replied:
August 25th, 2010 at 10:19 am
I agree that david is a very good vocalist. However, I believe that even though he has incredible ability, he barely ever taps into it. David is my biggest problem with their last few albums. Even though he can scream/growl/sing like a champion, most of the time his delivery is beyond corny. Not in a awesome, early-showdown corny sense, but a radio friendly three days grace/nickelback catastrophe. He has a good voice but his clean singing is usually either shallow lyrically, or predictable delivery.
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August 25th, 2010 at 10:14 am
The tracks they put online within the past few weeks bored me to death. Listened to some of the tracks that they didn’t post, and dig some of what I’ve heard.
I’ve made the mistake of running out and buying the showdown’s albums the day/week they come out without hearing much of the album. i bought temptation and backbreaker in excitement and blind support of a band that i hold dear to my metal heart. both albums severely disappointed me. the showdown is the little engine that could, but decided not to.hopefully gears brings them back… i have yet to listen to the full album, but i’ve listened to more than half of it and i’m not sure this is the comeback i was hoping for.
chorus was the showdown's only album that i really enjoy. i recognize it has many flaws, but it's the only one that feels sincere to me. all their other albums seem like they are desperately trying to to fit into some sort of box. i feel like they are a different band on every album. i want them to go back to their roots.
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August 27th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I agree with this album not being that good, but I cannot possibly imagine how anyone could defend Texas Hippie Coalition. It's uninspired geriatric rock, and certainly not as bad as any of The Showdown's flaws.
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January 12th, 2011 at 9:30 am
i think that it is awesome, i especialy love blood in the gears, i think every album of theirs is great they all have an awesome sound that i love, blood in the gears i think is there best album, then temptation come my way, back breaker, then a chorous of obliteration, they all are great albums though, each one is just appealing in its own way.
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March 25th, 2011 at 1:01 am
I actually bought this album accidentally today, (I thought it was a new Shinedown CD, lol) but I actually really enjoyed listening to it. It wasn't great, but it was good. I'd give it a 6.5/10.
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