American Head Charge: The Feeding

This record will be the next commercial-metal success. You will find it in record shops for a long time to come – alongside Mastadon, The Mars Volta, Shadows Fall and System Of A Down. Will it deserve the spotlight that will surely fall on it? Frankly - yes.

Don't expect the most progressive or intelligent music here. They describe themselves as industrial metal but this unusual group of musicians has also taken cues from nu-metal, extreme metal, and even rap and punk, and fused them into something refreshing and different.

The chaos in their music is a reflection of the bedlam that has been the band's history. According to the stories, American Head Charge was formed from a chance meeting in a Minnesota rehab facility in the mid-1990s by Cameron Heacock (now known as Martin Cock) and Chad Hanks (now calling himself Mr. H.C. Banks III). Those odd name changes will give you an idea of the poseur attitude adopted by the band in their early attention-starved days. In order to attract publicity they fired shotguns on stage, threw pig heads at the crowd and broke instruments. But they also toured relentlessly, building a fanbase the old fashioned way, and played the Ozzfest in 2001. Since those early days they've been through more upheaval including more rehab, line-up changes, record label problems, and a 4-year writing process. But through it all the band attracted the attention of producer Greg Fiddelman (System of A Down, Slayer), and The Feeding is a strange and frightening CD that was worth the wait.

One thing you won't hear is regular singing. There are no Ronnie James Dios here, no Chuck Schuldiners, and no Clay Aikens. Most of the vocals sound like brutal cries of pain, something close to death metal but with more of an anguished feral scream. There are dark whisper-soft sections, there's a bit of rap, there are short passages of clean vocals, and every song is dripping in the emotions of despair, rebellion or torment. This music is heavily riff-based - but they aren't beholden to the riff and Head Charge shifts into soft passages, chaos, or unusual off-beat sections with little warning and with consummate ease. The instrumentals are led by the dual guitars but the music is a slave to the vocals which dictate the pace of every song.

The 11 tracks run a radio-friendly 3 to 4 minutes each and the record lasts just 41 minutes. But each track has its own personality and if you can get past the insolent attitude of a testosterone-drenched teenage-boy, you'll appreciate the raw talent and the refreshing in-your-face defiance that is this music's signature. Yes, there are a hundred European bands doing similar stuff, and doing it better. But they don't have the reckless Panache of the Head Charge.

Think of it as avant garde nu-metal for the masses. The kids are going to love this stuff!

Track Listing:
01. Loyalty
02. Pledge Allegiance
03. Dirty
04. Ridicule
05. Take What I've Taken
06. Leave Me Alone
07. Walk Away
08. Erratic
09. Fiend
10.Cowards
11.To Be Me

Added: September 23rd 2005
Reviewer: Duncan Glenday
Score:
Related Link: American Head Charge's Web Site
Hits: 11779
Language: english

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