Red Hair Revolution

What the hell has happened to these yanks? After years of bland radio rock and rap-“metalling” Rage Against The Machine-clones they suddenly wake up and blow my face up. First Snakeryder dishes out some damn fine, vintage 80s hard rock and now these four guys from the motor city, Detroit make it sound like Pantera never was towed to the pit for a very long break. Nah, I think guys like these have been filling the underground on the other side of the Atlantic all the time. But now somebody had the decency of informing me about it. Bowlscraper is one four-piece that does not fuck around. Red Hair Revolution is their debut Longplay and a damn fine at that one. They don’t concern themselves much with political correctness, high philosophies or gentle touches. In essence, they concern themselves with all things metal. For any freaks and geeks who dig ballads, there aint much for you here. Brutal, straight-forward riffs, pounding and fresh-sounding drum beats and in-your-face-till-youre-down-attitude. If I ever heard a band that picked up the torch where Pantera left it once imploding, Bowlscraper is that gang of nuts. Micks mostly harsh and ripping vocals even recall Layne Staley in the clean parts and Machine Heads Rob Flynn while distorted, among all the Anselmoisms. Dustins tasty drumming could be straight out of Vinnie Pauls textbook of style, and that’s saying a lot. Nice double-bass-attacks switch to steady beats whenever necessary. Song subjects range from the all mighty metal revolution (title track) to unity (All The Same), drugs (Stoned), greed (Potkorn), terrorism (Hide) and good ol´ jolly asskicking (B.F.H.). Some extremely nice Priest-esque riffs, only twice as heavy, drive Right In Front to the spot of my favourite track on this record. Its really useless for me to try and separate the riffing in the songs, it is just so evenly strong that its almost like Eli churns one killing riff after another, and throws some nice melodic solos in the mix, like on Potkorn and M.L.P. The production is very thick and very suitable for music this heavy. Extremely punchy, especially the razor-sharp guitar sounds leave me drooling for more among my neckpains. Waynes bass is brought up perfectly in the balance to smack the ears on for size with a savage low-end assault. About the only minus sides that I can find here is the slight lack of diversity - maybe some more slow, grooving songs and clean guitars here and there - that could have spiced up things a bit, and the very ending of the album that contains the only bit of filler on the record, namely Full Hand and BS2003. They just don’t have the feel of intensity and power that the first 10 songs easily accomplish. For every fan of Pantera, Machine Head, and the similar aggressive groove metal, Red Hair Revolution is a must buy. And every fan of balls-out, sincere metal that doesn’t care much about finess, but just bashes your face in with musical blows after another, you are very strongly recommended to find out about Bowlscraper. Another band that I honestly wish to lead a new wave of metal in America. The bands press release says that the band kills live, and I dont doubt that claim for one second. This is music born to be thrashed at 120 desibels. We shall hear from these guys again, make them heard through your stereos too, LOUD!