The Dead Walk (CD - 2006)

Recording information: Zing Studios, Westfield, MA.

The Acacia Strain want to be the penultimate hard rock/post-grunge/doom/speed/death/black/metalcore band, and their sophomore release and debut for Razor & Tie does an awfully good job at taking the bull by the horns. The Dead Walk takes the redundancy of the metalcore scene to task by utilizing the heavy riffing of "Creeping Death"-era Metallica, the industrial cacophony of "Broken"-era Nine Inch Nails, and the malevolent fury of Cannibal Corpse (without the attention-grabbing song titles) and fusing them into a blistering juggernaut of sound that is as relentless as it is reliably electrifying. Deep, serpentine guitar licks appear out of nowhere, drum fills jump out and grab you when you least expect them, and lead singer Vincent Bennett delivers the contents of his stomach at an almost inhuman rate throughout the short 30-odd minutes of mayhem -- at 3:47, the thunderous title track seems downright epic. The Acacia Strain may lack subtlety -- "4X4" begins with the lyric "If I were you I'd pack my bags and get the fuck out of Dodge" -- but so does heavy metal and all of its naughty little subgenres. Play loud. ~ James Christopher Monger minimize