Shotgun Messiah - Violent New Breed (1993)

Clearly the alterno-metal injection into a dying scene made a big impact on a lot of bands. It produced a huge wall - many bands failed to climb it, others marched into the '90s with new vigour and venom, although whether this was a good thing I'll let others decide. Skid Row, Mindfunk, Dangerous Toys and Shorgun Messiah, just a handful of acts who revamped their sound to move with the times, not all succeeded. Shotgun Messiah were a pretty dull sleaze band who threw themselves headlong into '93 with a rather colossal record that would have probably killed off any last remaining fans of their brand of bar room sleaze metal. Now the band are painted grey, snarling at the cage and churning out a smorgasbord of industrial rock, somewhere between Skid Row's pounding 'Slave...' record and the more mechanical thumping of Ministry and even Faith No More. Some may find such a direction change ultimately cringe worthy, others may feel that these sort of bands deserve a second chance although maybe they should have changed their name. The once sickly vocals of Skold are now harsher tones, killer chugs are bound together by metalized and mutated clanking and the drums almost have a machine feel to them. Respect to the band for this transformation, 'Monkey Needs' certainly scrapes the skull with barbed wire elegance, and although this cyber stomp grates after a while, I guess this was the only way the band could progress. Strangely, it would take Guns 'n' Roses an eternity later to structure similar throbbing soundscapes, although Axl and company did it on a far greater and more accomplished scale.

6/10