40 Grit
““Heads””
(Metal Blade)
Guitar crunch. Mean and low with a growly vocal presence that likes to drop into a deep throaty scrape as well as pull a moaning sweep of melody. Its heavy in a crossbred Korn / MachineHead way. There’s a few moments almost too Korn about this release, so if your ready to sling some arrows at any band who throws down dropped D riffage, whiny insecure vocal passages with tantrums of rage interspersed, fire away because 40 Grit paints with many of the same colors. But rocking is rocking and this holds its own. When 40 Grit walks away from this already run territory, the true potential of this bands shows through more clearly. The guitar snap and stutter of the opener, “Ground Zero” is 40 Grit prime cut. The vocal wash in the beginning of, “Fade Into You” is fresh. The more metal squawk of, “No Name” wears well with 40 Grit (and check the closing crush of repetition just to make sure it leaves a bruise). When they get more aggressive and stay away from the “new school” guitar approach, 40 Grit becomes the band I hope they develop into. For now, forgive the Korn clone songs, and embrace the other most worthy tracks. At the very least, this album is produced well so all tracks have maximum sonic crush and are definitely of the breed you test out the volume knob with. They are probably wicked live.
