Alive Records
2007
Guts Of Steel
About This Album
With five years, two monikers, and myriad lineup changes behind them, Brimstone Howl seem to have finally settled into what will hopefully be a more constant form. All right, that might be a bit much to hope for, but considering the almighty yowl that is their Guts of Steel album, fans can be forgiven for wishing that this model sticks together longer than its predecessors. Kicking off with the rollicking rockabilly ride of "Bad Seed," they howl at a haunted moon goth-abilly style on "In the Valley," a particularly shiver-inducing track, then celebrate their "Luck of the Spade" across a Stonesy down-and-dirty R&B number -- all of which is just a warm-up for the garage rocker "Red Glare" and the punk inferno of "Heart Attack." "The Moment and the Hour" is nearly as fiery and as big as the Rockies, a Western-flavored rocker with lava licks of guitar solos, a storming bassline, and pummeling beats. The sequencing of this first half of the set is inspired, and it's a shame that as much attention wasn't paid to the production, which is so muddy in parts that it's almost impossible to decipher the lyrics. Never mind, because even covered in sludge, Brimstone sound fantastic -- and besides, the slurry that covers the more downtempo "Six and Seven" works a charm, as the band bares its rotten soul to the Lord across an incendiary slab of blues, with the flames of hell licking around the guitar solos.
Track List (try tracks 3,5,6,9 and 11)

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