Search - American Head Charge :: Feeding

You can always wonder what could have been (1.5/5 Stars)

Mike | Here and There | 05/11/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"So, after releasing The War of Art in 2001, American Head Charge started making noise for themselves as a dominant, up-and-coming nu-metal act with a bright future ahead of them. They had the support of many of their comrades/touring partners, Rick Rubin as their producer, and a spot on Ozzfest to help them further cement their popularity.



Well, for what ever reason, the band went on hiatus after "The War of Art", which led to a three and a half year span between releases. During that time, the band had changed members, changed labels, lost Rick Rubin as their producer, and dealt with substance abuse issues. By the time this album came out, AHC was well-behind the pack; playing nu-metal for an underground crowd while underground metal tastes were going toward the metalcore/NWOAHM movements. The band went on to tour behind this effort, suffered through the accidental death of their guitarist, and put out a live DVD with a CD containing B-Sides and Rarities. However, the band's been considered inactive for the past two years and it's anyone's guess as to when they'll reconvene or if that will ever happen at all.



Personally, none of the tracks on this album stood out to me as remarkable. In fact, when I heard "Loyalty" for the first time, I thought it took too much influence from Lamb of God's "Ruin" for me to consider it original sounding. While the guitars weren't too bad, the vocals were a tad generic and the drumming was dull and repetitive.



Had this album been released in, say, 2003, I could see the album being considered a "sophomore slump" where they could have recorded something beyond that to regain respectability. But given the time between releases, it's very likely that this band's better days are regrettably behind them."