THE ACACIA STRAIN

Heavy is good, angry is good, and unrelenting pummel is just super. Too bad those elements alone do not define metal excellence. No, I'm not going to rip THE ACACIA STRAIN's "The Dead Walk"; there are some fine cinderblock-to-the-head moments. It is just not something I can rave about.

Now down to two guitarists, THE ACACIA STRAIN attacks with fat, down tuned chords that wouldn't be out of place on a SOULFLY or MESHUGGAH album. The moments of non-traditional rhythms remind to a limited extent of the latter as well. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's Adam. D ("with help from Wayne Krupa") is responsible for the drowning-in-mud feeling one gets from prolonged exposure to "The Dead Walk". Musically, it is something along the lines of a combination of CONVERGE, any number of sludge bands, and the audio equivalent of being beaten by 50 rubber hoses. A hardcore element is present too, mainly resulting from Vincent Bennett's guttural hardcore vocals that sound monstrous and painful at once. All of it is brutally heavy and works to some degree as a battering ram approach to soul purging. Lyrically, the tunes possess some seriously enraged moments, as evidenced by these lines from "Whoa! Shut it Down": "I hope you like this; I really hope you do / I hope you like it as much as getting your face busted in with a hammer / you are done destroying lives".

Mostly mid-paced with periodic changeups to speedier fare, there are a handful of songs that are noteworthy, such as "Predator: Never Prey", "4 X 4", "and "Pity", mainly due to dynamic tweaks to the arrangements that result in more of an enveloping vibe. And that's the rub. When it comes right down to it, a little thing called feeling tends to make or break an album in my book. The anger and heaviness are here, no doubt about it. There is even some creativity at work. Unfortunately, something seems to be left out of the equation, resulting in as much sterility as brutality. "The Dead Walk" will probably have its fair share of adoring fans and critics. This one just left me wanting, no matter how many times I spun it.