The Damned Things - Ironiclast

Track List:

1. Handbook for the Recently Deceased
2. Bad Blood
3. Friday Night (And We’re Going Down)
4. We’ve Got a Situation Here
5. Black Heart
6. A Great Reckoning
7. Little Darling
8. Ironiclast
9. Graverobber
10. The Blues Havin’ Blues

The Damned Things; if you look at them on paper you’d think “Oh God I hate to imagine what that’s going to sound like” yet in reality, you would never have predicted this outcome. Sleazy blues rock from members of Anthrax, Everytime I Die and Fall Out Boy?! Nobody saw that coming.

I love them, I really do they are the true definition of a super group and Keith Buckley proves with this he’s not just a metal vocalist he is a very versatile singer with a very distinctive style. Also Scott Ian being in this band doesn’t really seem his style but it feels like he was meant to do it!

The debut tracks I heard are “Ironiclast” and then single “We’ve Got a Situation Here” which I could not turn off for 7 days straight; it was the only song I listened to because it was so funky and catchy. Another thing about “We’ve got a situation here” it moves from groovy and melodic verse and choruses to a really heavy breakdown, it links some of the member’s to the metal background that they've come from. Yet the song “Ironiclast” is by far the heaviest song on the album and is set to be a head banging anthem at their live shows; it showcases the raw gritty metal side of Keith Buckley’s vocal range.

Then the minute the album was streaming on UltimateGuitar.co.uk I was straight on there listening to it. I was so pleased with it, It's incredibly addictive shown by the fact I listened to it front to back at least 20 times that night and I couldn’t turn it off; it was the perfect album for bouncing around to and I did just as such for hours on end.

The rest of the album encompasses the same elements as the the debut songs whilst taking a more blues rock approach, examples such as “The Handbook For The Recently Deceased” and “Friday Night” Which both have heavier elements in them (especially the exceptionally riffy bridge after the second chorus of “Friday Night”) yet still keep a melodic lighter side to them during chorus's.

There are the very melodic softer songs on the album that you can imaging thousands of people clapping along and dance to, “Bad Blood” Is one of these with a chorus that’s as infectious as a virus and then “Little Darling” is the second one that is more a song for the ladies but is still an extremely groovy song.

“Graverobber” is heavy with lots of palm muting and big dirty chord changes; it's more of a dirty rock track as opposed to the rest of the songs which can also be said for the track “Black Heart” which is in a similar style to that of “Graverobber” except that it has a lot or technical licks and fills built into it.

“The Blues havin’ Blues” is exactly what you would expect from a track with blues twice in the name; possibly the most blues orientated song on the entire album. Yet it’s not just the standard 4/4 blues song, obviously the sound that The Damned Things put out has progressed from the days where Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters dominated radio stations but takes good influence. They have distorted rock elements slotted in behind some very mellow bluesy riffs which is where coming from a background of rock and metal music will always give them a massive boost in their writing.

The last track to talk about is “A Great Reckoning” which is also bluesy like “The Blues Havin’ Blues” but this song is a very soft light hearted song to which Buckley’s vocals are the vocal equivalent to the creamy centre of a cake that everyone loves, after listening to this track it solidifies that he’s not just a metal vocalist and that his range can take him anywhere within the industry. The guitar solos match the songs absolutely perfectly (they do in every song but this one for me is just the one that shows it the best).

The album on a whole is a masterpiece that warms my heart, it truly does. I suggest this band to absolutely everyone who asks me about a good band to listen to. The guitar work is something of a piece of art and the drummer has a good sense of time and has very effective fills. I don’t need to say anymore about the vocals on the album or I’m going to be declared gay and have everyone think I’m in love with Keith Buckley.

[9/10]