Straight out of Walking Dead-land, Atlanta's heavy hitters Volume IV unleash their filthy sonic attack with great aplomb and with a big sneer on their faces. Full of grit and no-nonsense they simply pummel their listeners to a bloody pulp. Opting at being a force instead of going for warp speed, the band build up their songs to end in a furious crescendo. And that works great in my eyes...sorry ears. Doing it this way actually makes their music heavier than going at it 200mph. The drums and the bass guitar gets more room in the mix and when frontman Joe Carpenter starts belting out the lyrics with his raspy, hard-as-nails voice while riffing madly, annihilation time is on.
Initiating the onslaught with Wager Volume IV are like a stampeding juggernaut and man this is so good. It takes me back to when I was a care-free party-hard youngster. There is a lot of early Motörhead in this song with some cool Thin Lizzy guitar harmonies. Add Joe Carpenter's singing on top of it and you simply can't go wrong as he reminds me a bit of Clutch's Neil Fallon and this combination permeates throughout the EP. This is nothing bad, on the contrary interwoven with the band's own ideas the songs are fantastic.
The band brings down the pace slightly on KONG and focus even more on the riffs and harmonies as Joe plays his guitar to pieces. As I wrote earlier Volume IV opts for force instead of speed to bring out the heaviness and that couldn't be more apparent than on this song. To quote the guys "too rock for metal - too metal for rock" and that is spot on. Fantastic!Upping the ante a bit In The Land Of The Blind The One Eyed Man Is King sees the rhythm section of Neil Yearta - bass guitar and Troy King - drums, excel being tight and heavy as hell which they are throughout. But here it explodes like a super nova....oh check out Joe's blistering solo. Leading into the last track Poison Holy Water Volume IV actually puts the pedal to the metal stirring up some brilliant led-heavy rock. The whole band is on fire as they tear some shit up. Imbedded in the song is a cool boogie vibe that definitely makes the song stand out. It's kind of hidden in the mix but is audible enough to have yours truly do my patented penguine-shuffle-dance while headbanging...it's not a pretty sight I can tell you that much although it's a sign the music is excellent.
I came across this awesome trio, where Blake Parris now handles the bass guitar, by chance and they had me from the word go. Since they make awesome heavy-ass music and are honest and hard-working they deserve to be out there, so be prepared that I will spread their gospel time and time again. Judging by this EP the band has all it takes to make it big which is great because music like theirs is missing to the general public. What I mean is if more bands had the balls, talent and determination like Volume IV the music climate would be so much better and exciting! An awesome release by an awesome band so go to their website and download it...then go out and kill some zombies!
--Swedebeast
