What I like most about being a reviewer for Peacedogman.com is that every once in a while you get sent a record by some band or artist that operates in a league completely their own. Some of my favorite records of the last few years have been those by the likes of MOUNTAIN MIRRORS, SLACKS! and BLACK HELICOPTER. All bands that make their own brand of rockin' good music with no regards of such superficial things as 'genre' or 'category' whatsoever. That's what I was thinking when listening to this album by the weirdly named U.S. CHRISTMAS from North Carolina, who for some reason dedicate this album to NEIL YOUNG and whose music can be described as a combination of (post) punk, heavy guitar rock, roots-rock and psych (sort of).

The album starts with the title track, a mellow acoustic instrumental bit, which is immediately followed by the blistering rocker "New War". The rest of the album is not much different. A combination of beautiful mellow instrumental parts and furious rockers with screaming vocals and eerie synth sounds. The closest the album comes to conventional hard rock is the SABBATH-groove of "Thin The Herd", ironically one of the lesser tracks. The best of the bunch is "Black Snake", a great piece of pounding, eerie garage-bluesrock. Some extra bonus points for the unpolished production, which gives the album a really raw underground feel.

The album ends with the 10-minute long "Bad Heart Bull II", which starts like the album opener but culminates in what sounds like the guys beating the shit out of some kitchen appliances or something. Musically not that interesting but it doesn't matter because the stuff that precedes it has already won me over. This is one of those albums that won't garner any mainstream success but has 'cult status' written all over it. Recommended for people who like their rock adventurous and non-formulaic.

- Van Hoften

OFFICIAL SITE: www.uschristmas.net

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Black Snake

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.