Detroit Rock City road warriors Against the Grain are back with their fourth full-length album, and they’ll surely be coming to your town to help you party it down in the very near future. But in the meantime, we’ve got these 12 tracks of Motor City speed rock to tide us over, 40 minutes at a time.
They get right down to brass tacks on the title track, picking up the pace with a groovy riff in the vein of The Shrine, before pumping the brakes for a catchy, mid-tempo chorus. They slow things down slightly and lay heavy on the wah for “Smoke,” a tune reminiscent of their one-time touring partners, The Atomic Bitchwax. But then they really go off the rails for a couple frantic numbers, “Sacrifice” and “No Sleep,” which hover around the two-minute mark. The former would probably make Lemmy proud, while the latter sounds sorta like Nashville Pussy on speed.
The groovy, up-tempo riffage and face-melting solos continue with tunes like “Jaded and Faded,” “Rolling Stone” and “Enough’s Not Enough,” slowing things down only for the curious case of a power ballad in “Devils and Angels”—but even it manages to lay down a few decent grooves in 5:13, which is practically an eternity for ATG.
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