GALLACTUS (Nine Mile Woods) CD
Formerly known as GALACTUS 77 'Nine Mile Woods' is the latest and second album from this Canadian heavyweights. Diminished Fifth Records released it in 2008, and GALLACTUS play that kind of gargantuan fuzz-driven metal-tinged heavy rock where you want to have a cold beer in your hand. There's nothing subtle or original about their sound, but it's packed with energy and soaked with adrenaline, all wrapped up in twelve aggressive tracks. Vocalist Dan Hodgson growls and roars his way through the songs, but his raw style is always melodious as far as possible when you have a voice that sounds as if you eat a bag of rusty nails each morning. Some songs like 'Skin Job' and 'The Doom' deliver a more doomy sound and it's entertaining to hear that GALLACTUS has enough variation to keep it rolling from start to finish.'Solar Eyes' is just pure filthy southern rock while 'Scars of the Axehandle' starts with a short sample, before a simple groove grabs your attention. Sometimes this album sounds like a ugly hybrid of Clutch and Scissorfight, but a song title like 'Kilmister' proves that another well-known band did inspire this four Canadians. I don't find much songs where I have the urge to skip forward. The title track is one of those songs, because it seems as if Dan Hodgson tries to imitate Phil Anselmo, one of the most overrated musicians in the history of metal and rock, but 'DeathsHeadMoth' is another good heavy bluesy song where a more clean guitar sound stands in contrast to the brutal vocals. Pretty much everything has been said about 'Nine Mile Woods', an album that isn't fricking awesome but good enough to give it some attention.
(KK)