By Monk
The annals of rock ‘n’ roll are littered with tales of bands who, to quote the title of a recently released single, coulda, shoulda, woulda made it bigger than they did if events hadn’t conspired against them… one such example is Diesel Machine, who, in the mid-Nineties were among the first wave of the then new-sounding groove metal acts, alongside Lamb Of God and Machine Head, to try and piggyback the coattails of the likes of heavy blues specialists such as Pantera and Crowbar.
Sadly, however, fortune on this occasion did not favour the brave and after just one album, the still fondly remembered ‘Torture Test’, the band were forced into an extended hiatus after they showed loyalty to their fallen brother, bassist Rich Gonzalzes, after he was involved in a nearly fatal motorcycle accident in the summer of 2002… Singer AJ Cavalier went on to front nu-metallers SOiL while guitarist Patrick Lachlan switched his axe for a mic when he took over similar duties with first Damageplan and then The Mercy Clinic and Burn It All. Now, two decades more than two decades after they first showed such early promise, the quartet, completed by drummer Shane Gaalaas (who appears to have been very much the driving force behind this aspect of the project), the quartet have once again emerged as a united and homogenous entity.
And that is perhaps the best description for this “comeback” album, which is both declarative and defiant in its presentation of a band solidly united against adversity and determined to pick up where they left off two decades ago, as if nothing had happened in the interim – except, quite possibly, for the fact that not only have they matured as musicians but also that the intervening period has made them even more pissed off with the circumstances behind it taking so long to get to this stage in their collective and individual careers.
‘Evolve’ is in your face and in your aural cortexes right from the opening rat-a-tat drumbeat of ‘Death March’ through the acidic, confrontational ‘Exit Wound’, the punchy lead single ‘Shut It’, the nihilistic decimation of ‘Judgement’, the challenging street-metal title track to the final beatdown of the appropriately titled ‘Anger Within’. There is not a weak moment displayed, in terms of the songwriting, the performances or the production: everything is nigh on perfect in each and every department.
If you even had just a passing appreciation for Lamb Of God’s own recent self-titled “comeback” opus, or seek some resolution to the conflicting question of where it all went wrong for Robb Flynn, or just seek a soundtrack to harken back to the heady days of groove metal’s initially exciting nascent stages, then ‘Evolve’ is definitely, and defiantly, worthy of your attention and investigation.
- ‘Evolve’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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