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Following up a massively successful debut album is never an easy task. Having to deal with rehab, record labels and line up changes makes the task harder. But metal eats despair for breakfast with chaos for a chaser and American Head Charge is definitely back.
2001’s ‘The War of Art’ shifted 40,000 copies and put American Head Charge up there with the big boys of the genre; Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Faith No More and Mudvayne. During the Ozzfest tour of the same year, AHC got themselves noticed by firing shotguns and throwing pig heads into the crowd. As bassist Mr Banks describes as a “desperate bid for attention”.
Now with only three of the seven band members surviving from the original line-up, AHC are out to grab our attention again with a new album. ‘The Feeding’ is a 41-minute feast of mean, thrashing metal. Opening track, ‘Loyalty’, is one of the best on the album with beefy in your face riffs and Martin Cock’s mix of singing and out and out shouting of the chorus “where is your loyalty now”.
‘Dirty’ is another stand out track with fast, thrashy guitars and Cock’s sadistic drawl serenading Satan’s handmaidens with dirty repeated over and over in the chorus. ‘Ridicule’ has a great mellow dual guitar opening, leading into a whispered verse. With its machine gun repetitive riff and throat wrenching shouting ‘Take What I’ve Taken’ is another meaty track. The eerie ‘Walk Away’ will have you waving your pig head to the sing-a-long chorus. ‘Cowards’ is the shortest track on the album but one of the meanest and ‘To Be Me’ is a worthy last breath of the album.
By the end of the album I wanted to give Cock a Lockett for his poor throat and a pat on the back for a job well done. An excellent, if short, album with good lyrics and good music. This is easily as good as the first and well worth a trip to HMV for.
