ALBUM REVIEW: High Crimes – The Damned Things
At the beginning of the year, it was firmly agreed that the most highly anticipated albums of 2019 would be from RAMMSTEIN and, for the umpteenth year in a row, TOOL. This remains true, but the fervour that has greeted the return of THE DAMNED THINGS has been right up there with them. It’s been nearly a decade since the supergroup released Ironiclast and until now it was accepted the world wouldn’t see any more material from them; how wrong we were. The end of the month sees the release of sophomore album High Crimes via Nuclear Blast Records and precedes a short US tour; cue excitement from all sides.
There is one word that sums up this album better than anything else, and that’s fun. Rhythm guitarist Scott Ian, usually plying his trade with thrash legends ANTHRAX, has regularly discussed the friendships that the band hold for one another, and that bond is heard throughout High Crimes in spades. The result is a record with tons of bounce, infectious choruses and one that begs to be listened to time and time again. Opening track Cells contains one of those aforementioned choruses, but the riff from FALL OUT BOY axe-man Joe Trohman is seriously good as well and vocalist Keith Buckley of EVERY TIME I DIE fame is on the form of his life; the expletive uttered halfway through is an added touch of rogue-ish class that certainly wouldn’t have made the cut on a record of their main projects. The choruses continue to grow in size and stature as High Crimes rolls on, the likes of Young Hearts and Keep Crawling two other examples of the band’s prowess at recording top quality punk rock. It helps that Dan Andriano from THE ALKALINE TRIO has come in to handle bass duties this time around as well – with the four-string being his instrument of choice, High Crimes feels more rounded than Ironiclast, when VOLBEAT guitarist Rob Caggiano took on the role.
But what also makes this a great album is that there is a freedom all members are clearly relishing. Sure, it’s a punk record in essence, but along the way there are a number of different shout-outs to other bands and movements that are clearly inspirations of the individuals involved. The most unsurprising of these is Something Good, with a pop-punk vibe and gang vocal that is straight out of the FALL OUT BOY scrapbook, although it must be said that both Troham and drummer Andy Hurley must be ecstatic to play something again that more closely resembles their outfits former sound. The triumvirate of Invincible, Omen and Storm Charmer have a ‘heavy alt rock’ vibe of BIFFY CLYRO, MUSE and ROYAL BLOOD respectively, with the latter also containing a very prog rock intro that would probably sound more at home on a YES album, the Hammond organ-esque keys a throwback to half a decade ago. There is a lovely touch to the originators of punk as well, penultimate track Let Me Be (Your Girl) doffing its hat to the likes of The Stooges and The Ramones, two bands without whom most of the music today wouldn’t exist.
It’s wonderful to have THE DAMNED THINGS back and even more so that they’ve produced an album that will live up to the hype of their return. For pure, unadulterated fun, you’d be hard pushed to find many better records than High Crimes, and its diverse nature and solid foundation will ensure that it is on a regular spin cycle through people’s libraries as 2019 progresses.
Rating: 8/10
High Crimes is set for release April 26th via Nuclear Blast Records.
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