Reviewed by Peter John Willoughby

The new trend in the hard music scene seems to be a mixture of crushing metalcore meeting southern rock. First came The Showdown and Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster, now along come young bloods Once Nothing. They describe their style as "blue-collar metal" as they are from Pittsburgh (rather than genuine good ol' boys). Josh Branas and David Burkes show off their dual guitar attack, aided by bassist Steve Lucarelli. Truly outstanding drumming is provided by Giuseppe Capolupo with precision, intensity and sheer technical ability. Todd Lowry sings mainly with a mid range growl and an occasional melodic tendency. The first lyric sums up their whole attitude, "Do you want to go for a RIDE?" as they grab you by the scruff of the neck and drag you into their frontier territory. On "Juliet Or At Least What's Left Of Her" he starts of with one huge howl almost drowning out the guitars. The acoustic ballad "My Sweet Medusa" with clear, calm vocals sits uncomfortably in the middle of the album and just doesn't seem to fit in. Thankfully they do not subject us to any more of this. There is no Christian content here apart from in "All My Heroes Are Cowboys" with its powerful lyric "Who are you paragon?/How can I trust those ribbons, if I cannot trust a carpenters hands?/Aged hands, calloused hands, those hands that I punctured." This contrasts rather oddly with other songs like "The Dust Of A Town" ("My mama said to me/Darling, you've got your daddy's temper/So you better watch your mouth/'Cause it'll lead you to the fire"). If you are a fan of August Burns Red or Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster, then I would greatly recommend that you get this.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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