SLOWRIDE
Building a Building (Deep Elm Records)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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The opening of Slowride's album Building a Building gets off to a slow, sort of folky start but eventually it rolls over into full tilt rock nicely. It sounds a little like Enter the Dragon era Urge Overkill. They're crisp and thick enough musically that the harsh indecipherable lyrics didn't stick out as much as they build into the band's desired metal sound. But metal isn't called metal anymore, it's called "emo" and Slowride stands out under that umbrella like a proud pugilistically earned middle finger. They're "bored, tired and out of beer" but bring a bombastic life to that lineage. Lacking a real anthem, Building a Building has a number of standout songs, from the fist pumping rock of "Just Do It" to the more droning, sedate acoustic shiner "Quitting Again." Regardless of genre, this is one of the more enjoyable bands to come across my desk in a long time and that is encouraging because there are few bands north of Weezer-land who seem to be having this much fun.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz