Band of the Week: The Damned Things

Fall Out Boy. Anthrax. Every Time I Die. Listened to any of them? Like any of 'em? Listened to The Damned Things? If not, you should totally check 'em out. They're amazing.

And now I'm going to back that statement up. Or a least attempt to. The Damned Things are one of these supergroup type bands, made up of Andy Hurley (drums) and Joe Trohman (guitar) from Fall Out Boy, Keith Buckley (vocals) from Every Time I Die and Scott Ian (guitar) and Rob Caggiano (guitar) from Anthrax. Three fairly dissimilar bands. I mean, FOB are/were kinda pop-punk, alternative, Anthrax are one of the big four of thrash metal and ETID play some sort of metalcore (don't ask me what, I haven't managed to figure it out yet). Diverse bunch of musical experiences there. The result is a hell of a lot more coherent than you might expect though. The Damned Things play straight-up hard rock with a strong heavy metal influence. And damn, it sounds so good.

For instance, take Friday Night (Going Down In Flames). It's quite simply a good solid rock track. Plus, it's got a brilliant chorus that I reckon is just brilliant for singing along to. Lovely little guitar solo, great vocals, good solid rhythm. And it's on free download at the moment, which is just wonderful. It'll tide me over until the album comes out in December. Currently, it's playing on repeat on my iTunes.

The only other tracks I've heard so far are We've Got A Situation Here and album title track Ironiclast. Again, good strong tracks with brilliant vocals from Mr Buckley. I do love his voice. It's just a great voice for rock. I spent months listening to the rough mix of We've Got A Situation Here on their MySpace, so it was kinda nice when they put the final version up. It was great to see the changes that had been made. Nothing drastic, but it was a far more refined version, which is what you'd expect, really, but I mean totally awesomely refined. They've still only got the rough mix of Ironiclast up, but going by their standards, I reckon the final version of that's going to be pretty damn awesome too.

Hmmm... what else to say? Well, totally check 'em out if you like rock, hard rock, heavy metal (especially of the early variety) and hey, just check 'em out full stop. They're wonderful. I mean, they make me want to headbang and I really don't like headbanging - it gives me the most ridiculous headaches. The debut album, Ironiclast, is due for release on December 14th. Anyways, check 'em out, tell me what you think and pass it on.

Assorted The Damned Things links:
MySpace
Last.FM
Free download of Friday Night (Going Down In Flames) (you'll need to "Like" the band first)