By Clare McCabe 

Released September 2th, 2013 - Warner Music

Welcome back Joey Jordison - a man of many talents. On hiatus from his drumming stool in Slipknot and working with Wednesday 13 inMurderdolls, Joey has come up with another side project with some new chums.

Recorded at Sound Farm Studios in Des Moines, Iowa (where Slipknot's wonderful All Hope is Gone was recorded), Joey collaborated in the writing of the self-titled debut album with Henry Derek, the band's vocalist, who wrote all the lyrics while Joey came up with all the music.

There is all the stuff you would expect of a Jordison-influenced band - the heavy and brutal guitars (he has said in recent interviews he wanted two lead guitarists with two completely different styles) and Jed Simonand Kriss Norris certainly complement each other with their playing. We also have great industrial-style keyboards incorporated into many of the songs - these were recorded by (ex NIN and Marilyn Manson) Chris Venna and you can certainly hear his influence. Then there are the shouting, varied vocals from Henry (very angry at times) which make the album so heavy.

My favourite tune straight up is Blood Host, the first single I believe.  This track is super busy, with layer upon layer of different sounds, like everyone is trying to play over each other (or sing over each other) - love it.  Bet that will be a great one played live.  Sample lyric from Blood Host - "With every word you say/the spew that you create/and every smile you fake/you only want to suck me dry ".

Another star of the album is Mind's Eye - gloomy and angry at the same time. Slipknot fans should enjoy this to be honest - you can certainly tell it is Mr Jordison drumming no matter which band he plays in, just like Corey Taylor with his side projects.

For a debut album, the boys seem to have gelled together extremely well, maybe it is just Joey's choice of band members, as most of them came highly recommended from previous colleagues/collaborators. Also, I suspect it was time for a slight change in direction with his solo stuff, in his words "there was no point in trying to rehash what has already been done". Well said Joey, well said.

All in all, a great debut effort from a new band who will be around for awhile I am sure.  If you are fan of Slipknot and Joey's drumming style you have to give this a try.

Scar the Martyr were recently out touring their album supporting Danzig and will be joining Rob Zombieand Korn on their USA tour in November - now that would be a tour well worth seeing.

Don't forget to include New Zealand in your world tour boys - you will definitely get a great reaction if you do.

4 / 5