Throwdown – Venom and Tears

I should have seen this coming, Throwdown has always walked a fine line between metal and umm, moshcore? But with this release, they’ve finally tipped the balance and gone all out metal. Upon hearing this, I couldn’t help but think to myself that this album was going to alienate a lot of fans. Throwdown seemed to be huge with the hardcore kids into heavier music, it was tough to go to a show and not see at least one person in one of their shirts. But the metal camp never has seemed to be to keen on accepting these hardcore crossover bands into their fold. If I weren’t so sure that this album was going to do well (or as well as a release like this can do), I’d assume Throwdownwould just fade out after a move like this.

I suppose you could consider this abandonment of their older style a growing pain though. I’m sure I’m not the only one that listened to Vendetta when it came out, some of the songs were okay; but they sure got repetitive. With the same predictable breakdowns and generic mosh parts, Throwdown was bound to get old fast had they stuck to what they were doing (coincidentally, although they changed, these new songs bet repetitive several songs in). The band probably knew about the lack of material they had to work with just as much as most of their fans and critics. This album, just like the albums of many hardcore bands before Throwdown, is merely a progression away from something that I’m sure was simply getting boring. Their old songs would have a handful of riffs, nothing fancy, maybe a sweet double kick beat, but nothing impressive. From the opening track on this album to the end, it’s the complete opposite, there’s guitar solos and seamless layering of the rhythm and lead (I swear, the second song must have had a pinch harmonic every 20 seconds), complex drum beats, and the lyrics address a much wider range of subjects than previously explored. Some fans might also be excited to realize that this album is a solid hour ofThrowdown, a solid hour that I made it through, albeit with some difficulty near the end.

These positives don’t really help change the fact that the vocalist now sounds more reminiscent of Metallica than ever before. Of course, this is also a metal album, something I have to really be in the mood for and even then, it’s really only several songs that I can enjoy/tolerate before I have to switch on something else. Therefore, if you’ve read this review, it can easily be assumed that I didn’t enjoy this as much as I could have. Fortunately, I do have this sneaking suspicion that most dire Throwdown fans won’t be daunted by the recent change of directions this band decided to take, nonetheless by what I say. I may be somewhat indifferent to this album, but it’s nice to see a band become more talented at what they’ve been doing for the past few years. I suppose I would recommend that the crowd into the heavier side of hardcore/metal pick this record up; you’ll most likely enjoy this a lot more than I did.