Wowee. These latest batches of goodies have been particularly tasty, with that DIRTY POWER EP, the PB ARMY thing, and now this! This would have probably made it onto my spinner a little quicker if it weren’t for the one-sheet namedropping STONE TEMPLE PILOTS. If there’s ever a way to move to the back of our collective listening pile, that’s the way. Luckily, except for some occasional (and very brief) riff pattern similarities, I found little connection to the San Diego snooze machine.

Instead, I got a pretty potent dose of Midwestern cruisin’ grungy rawk, with some energizing nods to MAIDEN and PRIEST. Screamy, serviceable vocals courtesy of lead singer / guitarist Andrew Clark (which was the same name as the jock guy played by Emilio Estevez in “The Breakfast Club”) don’t exactly steal the show Freddie Mercury-style, but they also won’t cause you to wince and give your CD player doubtful glances. Nah, “All The Way To Hell” is all about riffs that turn heads when you pull into the convenience store lot. My pick would have to be the relentless pounding of “Cathaholics”, which just seams to evolve from roll to trample to bulldoze and beyond. No self-respecting FU MANCHU enthusiast should even attempt to resist giving this puppy a listen. HIGHBINDER isn’t going to topple the masters of this style, like the mighty =DAREDEVIL=, but they have created a dashboard-thumpin’ disc that will make that drive to the beach in the El Camino go by a lot faster. How about a NECROS cover on the next one?

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.highbinder.com

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Terracotta Monster

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.