20-year-old Bryce Avary (who wrote, performed, recorded the 10 songs on this debut), has the rare ability to craft simple yet touching tunes with quirky twists.
Sonically fried my system with its perfect drum sound, Marco’s purely thrashy vocal attack, and its groove at these unsafe speeds. Marks off for brevity.
If Guns N’ Roses were reborn as midgets who liked The Donna’s, had half of Vince Neil’s brains, and thought rockin’ out would be cool, they’d be like this.
Smooth, driving, immediate, groovy, and clean Finnish churn-metal delivered with the utmost hi-fidelity. Clean and death vocals trade magnificently throughout.
Total top-notch brutality, blastbeats and flutter-picking, punctuated by “scary symphonics” and delicate piano. Always a side project to revolving members.
Recorded in ’98, never released, here’s the final Smoking Popes record. Ten non-ironic covers of Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, The Byrds, and more.
Welfare Problems continues Randy’s retrogression into (deceptively) primitive rock ‘n’ roll, slabs of grease in its hair and Hanoi Rocks vinyl in the back seat.