I have to admire Arizona’s Murkocet. They are stuck firmly in the early 00s American/thrash/groove  slightly Nu metal scene, firmly influence by the likes of Lamb of God, Slipknot, Machine Head (circa The Burning Red/Supercharger), Devildriver, Chimaira, God Forbid and such.

It’s a scene I wasn’t totally into, ( I never really got into Lamb of God), but it was an important cycle in the development of American metal, and I appreciated it’s legacy and liked some of the bands casually. But Murkocet, clearly longing for those days on their 11 track debut album, play all sorts of homage to the style with energy and conviction.

Yep- there’s even a “GET DA FUK UP!!!!” in album opening  intro”The Definition”, so that should clue you in. All kidding aside, these guys certainly ply the style well. The vocals are an array of  aggressive but not too extreme screams and growls, (with the occasional semi rapped cadence) the guitars deliver big beefy grooves and stomps and occasional thrashing canters  and the overall delivery is certainly competent. Tracks like “Dust Cloud”, “Tombstones”  and “Repo Man”got my head bobbing and kept me amused with some heft and aggression, even if not something I’d play on a regular basis.

To their credit, the band also manages to avoid the cliched ballad or clean vocals, even though there is the peaceful interlude in “Tranquil”. “Overdose”  and closer “The Beginning” comes close as they start as a slower, clearly more personal, somber numbers, but still brings some heft later on.

For those of you still out there rocking the JNCO jeans and dreads, and drawing that weird ‘S’ thing/logo on your school binders (do kids still even have those?) this will appeal to you, but for the most part this is a release that will have a pretty niche crowd.

[Visit the band's website]

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