Grudge – Forgiveness
You know, I’ve actually been to Billings, Montana. I don’t know what there is to be so angry about. Seemed like a nice place to me. Try telling that to Grudge, the latest metal band hailing from the beautiful northwest.
After popping Grudge’s debut album Forgiveness into my CD player, I thought it started out sounding like most of the other nu-metal albums I’ve heard recently. By the end of the second song, I had written off the band as yet another hard-alternative band.
How wrong I was. Once Grudge gets their radio singles out of the way, they begin to rock.
Fans of classic metal, double-bass, and chunk-rock will enjoy this disc. Even during the first couple of songs on the disc, you can feel the momentum slowly building, churning. Once Grudge gets the ball rolling, they push it fast and hard all the way to the finish line, 44 minutes and 10 tracks later.
Traces of Corrosion of Conformity, Sevendust, and Faith No More can be heard throughout the disc, even though they really don’t sound like any of those bands. The vocal work on the disc is very emotional, and even the growling is stylish. The fretwork covers a lot of ground, everything from palm-muted grooves to 80’ish solos. Grudge’s drumming reminded me a lot of Chaos AD-era Sepultura, with lots of short bursts of double bass and constant grooving.
“Hate Me”, “Suck Factor”, “12 Gauge”, and “Pissed Sick” all stand out as outstanding tracks. I’d recommend the disc for any Staind fans who are looking for something just a touch heavier. Any fans of pre-Korn metal will definitely enjoy the album. As long as these guys can stay pissed off and have something to write about, I think they’ll do just fine in today’s metal scene.
01. Forgiveness
02. Panaphobic
03. Pissed Sick
04. New Seed
05. Carni
06. 12 Gauge
07. Suck Factor
08. Wave of Hate
09. Filth
10. Hate Me