Bushwhacker

Do you find that your brain is bewildered by the extensive use of genre classification and adherence amongst many modern metal bands? Then perhaps you need a Bushwhacker to come in and trim things down for you, with a healthy dose of genre defying metal that can best be described as heavy music!

This is an interesting album that really can't be classified into a single genre. One minute they sound spacey and proggy, with atmospheric guitars, clean vocals, and good use of space between notes; next minute they hit hard with thrash-like riffs and harsh vocals. While some songs can be more clearly categorized as progressive metal ("Over Easy") or thrash metal ("Echoes Of The End") other songs like "The Trip" are a hybrid of various things. And there is never any specific formula to the songs; some start out slow and proggy, others like "Terminator" thrash from the first note. There is also a definite stoner metal influence in how some of the tracks tend to meander slowly from place to place.

Reminds me of Agalloch and Metallica. Favourite songs: "Over Easy" and "The Trip".

For those of you who like a little variation in speed, extremeness, and style in your metal, this would be a great album to check out!

Debut albums tend to have a charming atmosphere around them - the joy of both creating and finding something new. Of course, debuts also tend to be flawed to various degrees, usually in direct proportion to how ambitious the band wants to sound. In Bushwhacker’s case, their debut is surprisingly restrained in terms of execution, but lacks neither energy, nor ambition. The quartet definitely tried to write epic, yet heavy songs in a style that is hard to describe. … stoner thrash, maybe?

Imagine a carefully written set of midpaced, rather technical thrash riffs that transition seamlessly into one another. Got it? Good. Now slow them down a bit and replace the crunchy guitar sound with an echoey one that highlights the melodic bits rather than the heaviness. Now make this riffset the most prominent aspect of the song, and add plenty of guitar licks, technical drums and harsh vocals. That’s Bushwhacker’s debut for you. It does sound like a technical/progressive thrash album played by a stoner metal band, especially since the sections take their sweet time, as all songs are 6+ minutes long.

While the individual sections are skillful and effective, the album lacks a sprinkling of cohesive songwriting. Sometimes, the sections just fail to make an impact and just meander on for a minute or so. Or, in other cases, the band decides to fuck around with a riff that gets them nowhere, so they just switch it up and jam to another one (the first 90 seconds of “Over Easy”). When they focus, however, and create a build-up to one of the full-on aggressive sections, the machine really starts rolling. “Voices In The Walls” is written in this manner, and adds a climactic wah-wah solo that just logically ties all of the band’s ideas together. In other cases, they simply bludgeon you with slow riffs, drenched in re-appearing bluesy leads, but never overstay their welcome - just listen to “The Trip”. The guitars are stellar for the entire duration, but the drummer also deserves a pat on the back. Though hardly frenetic in style, his role isn’t limited to just time-keeping.

As said before, one can tell that Bushwhacker tried to assemble the songs to be both heavy and epic. To achieve this, they strayed away from the verse-chorus-verse formula, and the overall result is formidable, but not exactly memorable at times. The vocals don’t really help, either, as they are harsh, though very easy to understand - a ferocious and convincing standard thrash grunt. The thing is, the vocals are rather monotonous, and don’t add that much to the music. After all, this is a predominantly guitar-driven album. And if those don’t hook you, little else will.

Bushwhacker boldly attempted to tackle a certain songwriting style, and for the most part, they succeeded. “The Trip”, “Voices In The Walls” and a huge chunk of “Echoes of The End” will keep you coming back for more. Three songs, but then again, that’s half of the record. This is the band’s weakest release so far, as they would use this blueprint and add stronger hooks and more variety. All things considered, a solid start.