Beaten Back to Pure -

The Last Refuge of the Sons of Bitches
(Retribute) www.retributerecords.com

I had these cowboys from Hell lumped in with the curious clutch of "Stoner Grind" bands that made up the roster of headache makers Berserker Records, so I had steeled myself for an unholy racket when I popped this in while on a tear-ass run down the Mass Pike. I wasn't completely wrong- there's a billygoat gruff Dixie ogre up front, barking away like some punk kid just slipped in through the junkyard fence, and that shit can be distracting- but aside, above and beyond that, there's some searing, thunderous horseboogie going down here, and if you could somehow fade out the deathly growls, Beaten Back could be Karma to Burn's long lost redneck cousins. Thick, sick, and boozy riffs roll around in a bloody barbed wire cage match that pitches Sabbath against Slayer against a horde of angry rattlers under a burning red sun. Sons of Bitches? I believe it. Pick up your teeth on the way out.