Welcome to my first CD review for NR.net, and not being from Nashville, it’s appropriate that UnkleDaddy sent me the NASHVILLE ROCK vol. 1 disc to review.

      Owning and operating a record label, I get A LOT of CDs in the mail, and I owe it to the people who send them to listen to every one of them, not always all the way through, but enough to get an idea of what the artist is about. Compilations are different though, if you skip a tune you may miss the best band, so it forces me to listen to at least a bit of each song. It’s hard not to get jaded, but I don’t, I get excited about every disc I get, and often get let down horribly, but I trudge on…

      One thing that sticks out about this Nashville comp, not that it claims to represent an accurate cross-section of the Nashville scene, is that it seems like there are more metal/new metal/screamo?? bands than other styles; kind of a trend the past few years in many cities. Nashville is a huge scene now, even we Northerners know that, so it would’ve been nice to hear more bands across the “rock” spectrum, but it’s not unusual for these local comps to lean towards a particular genre or style. Not that this disc is all one style, it’s somewhat diverse as far as what the bands are going for, but there’s a similarity in sound that’s not unusual either in a particular metropolitan area, kind of like all the bands recorded at the same studio, odd, since they didn’t. The quality overall is a cut above what I hear on many comps from cities around the country, kudos for that. Digital makes it easier and cheaper for everyone to sound better on a lesser budget. On this comp, possibly because of good mastering, I can’t really tell which bands had the bigger recording budgets. 

     The first song that made me play it twice was “Fuck ‘em All” by the Cretin Grims, nothing groundbreaking, just full-throttle rock with a great drummer, reminded me of the beautiful hardcore days in the late 80’s/early 90’s, when “alternative” music actually was…

CRETIN GRIMS

     The next tune I heard all the way through was well, the next tune on the disc; “Fried Chicken” by the Jeano Roid Experience, the style Northerners would expect to hear from Nashville, kind of a twangy rockabilly tune, but this one’s about food. Ok guitar playing, nice and short, kinda goofy, how much can you say about chicken? We all love it, so the lyrics are easy to relate to.

JEANO ROID

     “The Boogie Man” by a band called The Exotic Ones…if they’re not a Doors tribute band, they should be, that shit is hot right now…

THE EXOTIC ONES

       Noisecult-“Blood Feast Tonight”…they should play shows with the Cretin Grims… that would be a fun night.

NOISECULT

       As I listened to “Panic World” by Axe Victim!?! It grew on me a bit, it’s a fun beat, the drums are cool; kind of  typical choppy guitar riffs, but it works.

      The rest are a good representation of what I hear around the country; heavy bands with screaming vocalists that probably destroy live, but the songs just don’t come across as unique on disc. The power of the live show, the drums, the volume, make it possible to overlook things that glare at me when it’s put to disc, there’s just no originality, I don’t have a metal band on my label because I can’t find one that’s doing something new. I go see the shows, and the power excites me a lot, but so many of the vocalists and guitarists in that genre are just interchangeable from band to band, in tone, style, and songwriting. There’s usually a lot of talent in these metal bands, especially the drummers, but originality has to be the focus, or your band gets lost in the sea of 65,000 new releases that came out last year, and will again this year. A fun disc to review, and one I’d put in the stack of regional comps to chart what’s happening around the country. Thanks for reading!