August 19, 2008

Early Man. OEJs, NOLA.

As someone who grew up listening to heavy metal in the late ’80s/early ’90s, it’s nice to see classic metal making a comeback. Bands like Early Man highlight this resurgence, with more of an emphasis on structured guitar licks, vocals that can be understood and songs that can be followed from beginning to end rather than a muddy five minutes of distorted guitar and “singers” with voices indistinguishable from a growling dog. Basically, more …And Justice For All and less whatever crud Slipknot’s slinging these days.

So it was exciting to see this show, and it didn’t disappoint. In quintessential metal form, there were tons of comments not fit to be repeated in a family publication, quite a few spectators wearing denim jackets with multiple patches sewn onto them and music that had even the bartenders banging their heads in delight.

Early Man’s a throwback to Megadeth-era metal, and with their contribution to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force soundtrack (“More To Me Than Meat and Eyes”) exposing them to new fans and TV shows like Metalocaplypse promoting the genre, maybe good metal will stick around for awhile.

—Leo McGovern

Posted at 9:48am
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music | on the road