now/super
I’ve had this disc for a couple weeks now and liked it so much after the very first listen that I decided to step away from it… just in case21st Century Goliath caught me in an unusually good mood. After several more listens I can confirm that my first impression was bang on — this debut album is a shit-kicking good time from beginning to end.
Trying to find comparisons for these North Carolina sleaze merchants is proving tough. I hear some James Hetfield in the vocal delivery of Tony Leone, but this band is nothing like Metallica — instead they are a mish-mash of Motorhead‘s adrenaline driven punk, Circus Of Power‘s biker rock and Raging Slab‘s irreverent boogie taken to furious extremes. In other words Radio Destroyer is the type of album that grabs you by the throat and drives its message home by delivering uppercuts and right crosses to your chin through its nine song duration.
The word relentless pretty much describes this entire release, but especially during the first single “Life’s A Bitch”. For four and a half minutes this track rumbles along with a heavy backend, in-your-face guitars and a chorus of ‘life’s a bitch, but the perks are good’. After barreling through two more hard-hitting classics, “Love Me Again” and “Hollowpoint”, 21st Century Goliath take things to yet another level during the title track — during this song the band explore slight tempo changes before exploding during what is the album’s most memorable chorus. Rounding out this merciless collection of tunes is the hillbilly-punk meets hard rock of “Let’s See (How Far This Goes)” and “Lipstick”, which has show-closer written all over it.
Sometimes bands set themselves up for failure by choosing a moniker that they could never live up to. However in this case the 21st Century Goliath‘s are every bit as ‘gigantic’ as their name suggests, not to mention the could actually destroy radio if any of them had the guts to play music this good. How about giving a young independent band a helping hand and picking up this disc — trust me, you won’t regret it.
Track List:
01. Ballad Of Charlie Guns
02. Life’s A Bitch
03. Love Me Again
04. Hollowpoint
05. Radio Destroyer
06. If You’re Ready
07. Graveyard Rendezvous
08. Let’s See (How Far This Goes)
09. Lipstick
Band:
Tony Leone – vocals
Scott Roby – guitar
Grayson Flippin – guitar
Cameron Ayers – bass
Adam Ellis – drums
Production:
Recorded, mixed, mastered by Jamie King.