Alabama's Maylene and the Sons of Disaster crash back onto the scene with the simply titled "II", which hammers home with a tri-guitar assault on your sensibilities, while frontman Dallas Taylor croons and swaggers in true Southern Rock style.
The album continues in the vein of their debut, re-telling the stories of real life gangster Ma Barker, and her crime family, with the band wielding 3 guitars in the place of the Tommy Gun that barker held in her blood drenched hand, exhaling her last breath after the shootout that took her life in Ocala, Florida.
To be fair, when I first listened to the album, I wasn't sure what to expect, and in a lot of ways after a mere 40 minutes when the album sounds out it's last notes, that remains the same, but as the guitars fade out, your left with a sense of a legend walking off into the setting sun, the story told, but one that your glad you recorded so you can listen to again to try and piece together what just happened.
A lot has been made of the guitar work on the album, but the hidden gem in all of it after the superb vocal work of Taylor is the drumming Lee Turner which constantly pushes you forward, never letting you catch your breath, and during "Raised By The Tide" an almost military marching interlude just in case you were confused about what they were there for. Forward, onwards, to death and glory!
The album drives you hard, so much so that by the time you hit the last two tracks, the slower more melodic sound that they bring with them hits you like a sledgehammer, telling you in no uncertain terms that the journey is for now at least coming to an end, Taylor showing a more melodic rock side to his vocals, leaving you guessing about what is yet to come.
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster keep you guessing, you don't know what the next tracks going to bring till you get there, and perhaps ironically, the real highlight of the album is not one driven by the guitars, nor by the drums, but "Tale Of The Runaway", where as mentioned, the vocal work of Taylor is superb as mentioned, and for just under 5 minutes you're treated to an amalgamation of everything old with everything new, only to be followed up the album closer, a near 5 minute instrumental in "The Day Hell Broke Loose At Sicard Hollow".
Ironic it may be that the two least heavy, hard in your face rocking tracks take their place as the two strongest on the album, but there it is.
"Legends are made in shallow graves" says "Tale of the Runaway"; let's just hope that Maylene and the Sons of Disaster don't end up in on themselves.
Lineup:
Dallas Taylor - Vocals
Roman Havaland - Bass
Scott Collum - Guitar
Lee Turner - Drums
Josh Cornutt - Guitar
Josh Williams - Guitar
Track Listing: 1. Memories Of The Grove 2. Dry The River 3. Plenty Strong And Plenty Wrong 4. Darkest Of Kin 5. Raised By The Tide 6. Wylie 7. Death Is An Alcoholic 8. Everyone Needs A Hasting 9. Don't Ever Cross A Trowell 10. Tale Of The Runaways 11. The Day Hell Broke Loose At Sicard Hollow
The album continues in the vein of their debut, re-telling the stories of real life gangster Ma Barker, and her crime family, with the band wielding 3 guitars in the place of the Tommy Gun that barker held in her blood drenched hand, exhaling her last breath after the shootout that took her life in Ocala, Florida.
To be fair, when I first listened to the album, I wasn't sure what to expect, and in a lot of ways after a mere 40 minutes when the album sounds out it's last notes, that remains the same, but as the guitars fade out, your left with a sense of a legend walking off into the setting sun, the story told, but one that your glad you recorded so you can listen to again to try and piece together what just happened.
A lot has been made of the guitar work on the album, but the hidden gem in all of it after the superb vocal work of Taylor is the drumming Lee Turner which constantly pushes you forward, never letting you catch your breath, and during "Raised By The Tide" an almost military marching interlude just in case you were confused about what they were there for. Forward, onwards, to death and glory!
The album drives you hard, so much so that by the time you hit the last two tracks, the slower more melodic sound that they bring with them hits you like a sledgehammer, telling you in no uncertain terms that the journey is for now at least coming to an end, Taylor showing a more melodic rock side to his vocals, leaving you guessing about what is yet to come.
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster keep you guessing, you don't know what the next tracks going to bring till you get there, and perhaps ironically, the real highlight of the album is not one driven by the guitars, nor by the drums, but "Tale Of The Runaway", where as mentioned, the vocal work of Taylor is superb as mentioned, and for just under 5 minutes you're treated to an amalgamation of everything old with everything new, only to be followed up the album closer, a near 5 minute instrumental in "The Day Hell Broke Loose At Sicard Hollow".
Ironic it may be that the two least heavy, hard in your face rocking tracks take their place as the two strongest on the album, but there it is.
"Legends are made in shallow graves" says "Tale of the Runaway"; let's just hope that Maylene and the Sons of Disaster don't end up in on themselves.
Lineup:
Dallas Taylor - Vocals
Roman Havaland - Bass
Scott Collum - Guitar
Lee Turner - Drums
Josh Cornutt - Guitar
Josh Williams - Guitar
1. Memories Of The Grove 2. Dry The River 3. Plenty Strong And Plenty Wrong 4. Darkest Of Kin 5. Raised By The Tide 6. Wylie 7. Death Is An Alcoholic 8. Everyone Needs A Hasting 9. Don't Ever Cross A Trowell 10. Tale Of The Runaways 11. The Day Hell Broke Loose At Sicard Hollow