Maylene And The Sons of Disaster – III

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Former Underoath vocalist Dallas Taylor’s Southern metal outfit have been steadily raising their profile with heavy touring since 2007′s II, with the label claiming 40,000 copies sold to date. Slots on the 2008 VANS tour, and a support tour with Clutch have brought them to wider audiences, and a third album hits at just the right time. The combination of post-hardcore vocals and southern rock still doesn’t really work, and the mis-match of styles spoils a few of the songs, but the second half of the album shines, and is amongst some of the band’s best work. The clean vocals of No Good Son and Listen Close, Step Up (I’m On It)‘s swampy drawl, and the bluesy verses of Oh Lonely Grave (even if the chorus vocals are the same post-hardcore mistakes) suit much better before excellent, mellow and incredibly aptly named instrumental The End Is Here… The End is Beautiful closes with a superb mix of acoustic and steel guitars. Opener Waiting On My Deathbed, with its dobro intro, more traditional Southern metal vocals and excellent electric solo ending starts the album off with the right idea as well. This is easily their best album, an just one step away from what should be their quintessential sound. Promising.

Written by Andy Lye
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