Reo Speedealer
Reo Speedealer (Royalty Records)
By: Alex Steininger
Hailing from Texas, Reo Speedealer is nothing short of energetic, uncut, rock 'n' roll filth sure to dirty up your mind and anything it touches. Guitars fresh from the asylum, drums that want to hurt and not make love, as well as plenty of bass oozing over every inch of the music, these guys know how to get their hands dirty and make you hurt.Their fusion of hardcore, punk, metal, and rock 'n' roll comes across sloppy at first, but as you take a closer look into the music you realize it's not the sloppiness that is driving, it's the magnificent force known as fun. That's right, these guys are all about fun. There isn't a moment that passes on this disc that doesn't sound like as if they're having a blast.
As their name suggests, speed also plays a major factor in their music. With their punk credentials firmly in place, they blast through fifteen songs in under twenty minutes. Their longest song clocks in at two minutes and twenty-three seconds, which for them must be a lifetime.
Even with the adrenaline soaring and the blood pumping rapidly through your veins, the biggest downside to the music is hard to avoid. The vocals rely a lot on metal growls, which can be very annoying and tiresome. Ruining the music in a lot of spots, while other times nicely hiding behind all the heavy instrumentation, when the vocals become the main focus of the music you're liable to turn off the disc and never give it another chance.
A serious hole in their music, the vocals ruin a lot of prospect this band has. However, if you're looking for that uplifting barroom sound that will take you from asleep to fully awake in ten seconds flat, then this is the disc. Ignore the vocals and let the muscle-soaring, rage-thumpin' excitement come on. I'll give this disc a C.
