loading...It works - 72%
This may seem like the latest in the development of "gimmicky metal bands"... from the people that brought you the Gothenburg sound... here's Devil in the Kitchen? Nah, nowhere near as insipid. Quite cool, in fact. What's the gimmick, you may ask? The use of the electric fiddle as lead instrument, and in fact as a constant in the sound, given that there are no vocals. So what we have here is a shred style band, a la Yngwie Malmsteen, except playing music more rooted in folk (thus, more appropriate for the fiddle)...
and having BALLS THE SIZE OF REFRIGERATORS. Because behind the man with the fiddle is the man with the guitar, and the man with the guitar is playing blazing speed metal riffs!! And by god this works.
My only real complaint is that the production is a bit raw, and that means you can really hear the fiddle, but at times not as much the guitar. I don't know exactly how this was recorded, but I have seen the band live, and I know what they "should" sound like, haha, and it's close to this - and for the purposes of marketing themselves, this is more than adequate, as you can hear the lead fiddle perfectly well... but the Huge Guns riffs are bit less prominent in the mix than I have liked. But still, imagine that old Charlie Daniels song, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, which could've been a metal song if he had thrown in some metal riffs, now imagine the metal riffs being there, and here's the result. (Heh, DitK should cover that one!)
The first two songs are really blazing fast, all the way through. Heather's Concussion starts things off (don't ask about the song titles) with a drum intro a la Exciter (I kid thee not) and then an opening riff that is a fiddle version of Exciter (I kid thee not), and then there are a few main passages that kinda repeat throughout the song. Fortunately, these guys know not to pull an Opeth, and thus there are not 12 minute songs with 2 riffs. More like 4 minute songs with 10 riffs, and of course the blazing fiddle solo all the way through, and the main riff sounds a LOT like Exciter. Whoo.
D-A Set (a combination of five Irish tunes in the keys of D and A, thanks Andy for the explanation!) is more traditional-sounding, as it is, after all a cover song of sorts. Then, throw in some duelling leads (guitar and fiddle) and you get something that has BALLS OF STEEL, and the riffage that sounds like Gamma Ray at times. I hear the middle section (with the endless solo) of Rebellion in Dreamland here. Indeed, this works surprisingly well.
The third song, Devil in the Kitchen, starts off with a midtempo riff over which is played a blazing fiddle solo (heh, "blazing fiddle solo" is a constant through the experience), and then there's a guitar break, at which point there is vicious thrash, and the peasants rejoice, and then the whole thing picks up to become a speed metal monster... probably the highlight of the album.
As I said, this sounds like a completely asinine idea, but it's NOT. I encourage you to go to their site, download their stuff... buy their latest album, offer to fellate Andy, etcetc. Blah. Or the devil will come to ... you know.
