2 Headed Chang “Deliver Us…” CD

I believe "Deliver Us..." is the sophomore full-length from Washington state metal act 2 Headed Chang, who I wasn't familiar with before they contacted me. And I'll be honest with you: That band name? Not feelin' it, and I really didn't think I was going to be into their material as a result. But despite a few lyrical and such "immaturities" (for lack of a better word)—insinuated by track titles like "Fuck Your Core", "Candy Ass", and "Skin Her for Dinner"—I've gotta say: These cats could do some serious fuckin' damage, because this shit sounds fuckin' great. They've got sort of a Pantera meets Throwdown thing happening in terms of combining chugging, contemporary neo-thrash riffs and an Anselmo-esque vocal approach with fucking punishing breakdowns—occasionally littered with ever-so-subtle death metal undercurrents or what have you. It won't be for everyone, and there's minor room for improvement here and there, but for the most part the songwriting's pretty damn solid, and this is extremely well-handled for a self-released effort. The layout's competent and all, but the recording's total gold across the board. I mean, shit, the guitar tone alone is fucking amazing and totally crushes even those of a few bands that are working with major label budgets these days, so... these dudes definitely seem to have a handle on exactly what to do in the studio in terms of getting a crisp, punchy sound.

In terms of what I'd say they need to work on... it's kind of touchy in a way. For example, on rare occasion there are a few little elements that sort of bring Slipknot to mind—which isn't the worst thing in the world, but still... I just feel like the heart of what these guys are doing is separate from that kind of thing, you know? I don't necessarily want to say that I think they need to develop a slightly more "mature" presentation or whatever, but there's a fine line between having a good time and delving into unnecessarily cheesy trappings like giving all of the band members "nicknames" like Kurt "Sparkles" Caron and Brian "Black Velvet" Valentino (or jokingly saying, "Yeeeaaah, bitch!", at the beginning of a song, for that matter). And I don't want that to sound like I'm downing these guys at all, because that's not the case, I just truly believe that this is a more credible album than a lot of people would give 'em credit for based on the aforementioned scenarios and some of the overly-blunt lyrical content. I'm very pleasantly surprised by the bulk of this material, and I could very much see this band making a dent down the road. There's a hell of a lot of promise here...

2 Headed Chang "Bonded With Vengeance"
2 Headed Chang "Fuck Your Core"

I'm not sure what's up in terms of buying this thing as it just came out at the end of last month and the band doesn't seem to have purchasing options in place just yet, but I'm sure if you contact 'em via MySpace they can hook you up with ordering information. Get to it if you like what you hear...