My expectations were not very high based on the band pic here. In fairness, it's slightly better than the band pics from their earlier album I saw online, where one guy is wearing Kiss-style makeup, one has whiteface with red stripes across his mouth and chin, one guy just has on corpsepaint, and the drummer has eye black underneath just one eye. They still haven't quite fixed their weird facial makeup addiction here though. Especially considering the Confederate theme of the CD, I was kinda expecting music more on the Southern or groove metal side.
Instead, this is a hard rock/metal mix that unfortunately tends to skew way more towards the rock side. If an album has a song called "Calling Metal Warriors" with lyrics that have clearly been inspired by Manowar, I think it's fair to expect a higher amount of heavy metal content than what's here. The music seems a tad on the simplistic side and they seem to favor slower and mid-paced tempos. Considering that, I think they could have leaned into doomier material for great effect, as the somewhat Sabbathy "Wizard in the West" is one of the better tracks. "Calling Metal Warriors" is also comparatively good but falls way short of deserving its name. The dual guitar part in "I'll Never Love Another," while not really all that intricate or flashy, does seem more inspired than some of the other guitarwork on display here.
Also have to mention the vocals, which sound oddly strained. They waver a bit in some places, and overall it just sounds like the singer is constipated. Aside from that, even though the amount of metal here is quite disappointing, the music is simple and straightforward enough that it's not terribly offensive. Didn't give me much back for my $1.99 though...
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