...okay, you didn't buy it, did you? With this band name? This album title? This artw—yeah I'll cut it here. Blunt Force Trauma was a Texan crossover unit that only released the here presented Let Them Eat Lead in 2012 before apparently folding, possibly also due to the guitarist's premature death five years later. They could count on none less than Felix Griffin (D.R.I., M.O.D., Bat, etc.) behind the drums, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't check them out for his presence only, but I thought I'd find something to like regardless.
In any case, judging from the devastating instrumental intro 'Rise of the Oath Keepers', the man himself makes sure I won't leave unsatisfied after the LP ends. I don't think I've ever been disappointed by a performance of his, and Let Them Eat Lead is perhaps the perfect environment to let him shine, with 12 songs spread across 27 minutes, and the longest one going on for an outlandish duration of 3:30. It's on albums like this that one can find solace in the little things – the sporadic solo snippets on the strong title-track or the rabid 'C.S.R.', an uber-energetic refrain in 'Zips in the Wire', or even a slow section with a basic lead melody on 'Legislate'. When that doesn't happen, you can also rely on literally every other track not mentioned to be have pure, sheer blind fury vomited upon you, especially with amicable cuts such as 'Government Lies' or 'Tragedy Vultures'. Once realized that you really wouldn't want anyone other than a brute bald guy throwing every kind of hateful things at you alongside the music, Bobby Fuentes might just be your man, with his strong, Billy Milano-esque incessant shouting. Okay, maybe too incessant, as on songs like 'Break Down' he apparently doesn't even feel the need to breathe, but overall it's just what the background needs.
Let Them Eat Lead is the kind of albums that do exactly what they set out to do, nothing more, nothing less. While a little more ambition in the riff-writing could have resulted in something with a longer lasting impact, well, 'ambition' was perhaps one of the illegal words in Blunt Force Trauma's rehearsal room.
-review written for the 13th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge – may you rest in peace, Chris.