California groove metallers Butcher Babies have been on the exponential rise for the past year, and while their live performances have been undoubtedly phenomenal, their music has never quite hit the mark with us…but we review it today and ‘Take It Like A Man‘!
[tracklist]
01. Monsters Ball
02. Igniter
03. The Cleansing
04. The Butcher
05. Gravemaker
06. Thrown Away
07. Never Go Back
08. Marquee
09. Blood Soaked Hero
10. Dead Man Walking
11. For the Fight
12. Blonde Girls All Look The Same
[/tracklist]
[details]
[length]44:57[/length]
[record_label]Century Media[/record_label]
[release_date]21st August 2015[/release_date]
[/details]
To say that Butcher Babies‘ debut ‘Goliath‘ was a fair shot is an understatement. While the band roared on to the scene in 2013 with a couple of hard-hitters, the full-length album was simply underwhelming – it was fast, heavy, but the amount of low note spamming on the 8 string guitars consumed any sense of creativity. But my philosophy as with many others is that you can never write a band off until you see them live, and I can safely that Butcher Babies deliver on the stage with one of the highest energy performances I’ve ever seen. So we’ve decided to ‘Take It Like A Man‘ and give it another shot!
The opening track of ‘Monster’s Ball‘ is one of those tracks you just can’t really tell if you like or not. While the lyrics are delivered in a cringeworthy fashion, the song has an extremely addictive and groovy hooks spawning numerous parody videos of clips of TV stars dancing to the song. While it isn’t my favourite track and one that is a questionable opener for an album, the surprise is incoming…
And here we have some great music that yields no controversy! The album shoots into some intense Bay Area style thrash in the track ‘Igniter‘. Keeping the consistent element of the high energy and speed, some fiercely technical riffs are thrown into the mix under the throat-grabbing vocal flurry of frontwomen Heidi Shephard and Carla Harvey. It’s a taste of the determined musicianship the band have thrown into the album and a mission statement to prove that Butcher Babies are not just another gimmick of the California groove metal scene.
With increasingly better tracks such as the brutal-melodic clash in ‘The Cleansing‘ and neck-wrenching riffing in ‘The Butcher‘ that statement becomes even more apparent. Diversity and memorable hooks are spread throughout ‘Take It Like A Man‘ without once losing the Butcher Babies trademark energy, and even take a stab at an eerie ballad in the track ‘Thrown Away‘.
Even more impressive about the album is the band have created such an album without resorting to heavy production value that California bands seem to do. No sound effects or synths are present, just plain and simple guitar work executed very well – pinch harmonics, high register and low riffs all meld together flawlessly.
It’s worth mentioning the gargantuan step up in songwriting when you compare the final two tracks of the album, the new song ‘For The Fight‘ and the re-recorded ‘Blonde Girls All Look The Same‘ where the former can be hailed as aggressive brilliance with the latter just falling a bit flat. It underlines how well-thought out ‘Take It Like A Man‘ actually is, and is a very pleasant surprise.
The natural execution and performance of the album leaves the idea that the band will be able to completely replicate the album live. Not only the performance will be an impressive thing to watch, but the music will be something great to listen to. ‘Take It Like A Man‘ is pure enhancement on already makes the band good, and if we see more albums like this in the future, Butcher Babies could be great..
[verdict]Yes[/verdict]
[why]Butcher Babies have proven with this album that they not only have the brawn, but the brains as well to become a respected metal success. They have drastically improved on the shortcomings of ‘Goliath’ to create a very listenable metal album from end to end.[/why]
