Superjoint Ritual – A Lethal Dose of American Hatred (Sanctuary Records)
Phil Anselmo’s continued nod to the old school with even more crusty punk/metal/hardcore. Think Carnivore, Discharge, Cryptic Slaughter, Hirax, Cro Mags, and Agnostic Front, but very metal and with very crunchy guitars. The riffs are good, but a little same-y after a while, and nothing really sticks in your mind, even though the songs as a whole are by far catchier than the ones on the last CD. Also, many start to sound like Pantera left-overs. The drumming is awesome, and the bass is competent enough, I guess. The song constructions are pretty basic, nothing groundbreaking. The lyrics, on the other hand break new ground with their utter, sheer idiocy. I respect Phil Anselmo a whole lot, and everything he touches turns to gold, but he can’t write decent lyrics to save his life. It doesn’t matter, though, because I can’t imagine anyone singing along to any of these songs anyway. This is a CD to put your head down to and tear a bloody path through a moshpit, nothing else, nothing more. Brutal, irreverent, noisy, mean and nasty with one hell of an attitude.

Recommended Tracks:
1) Nice riff to start things off with. Builds up a few times and it’s pretty brutal.
2) The “hit single”, awesome short ditty that’s just brutal, but FCC at –0:23 (fuck).
9) Short, starts out really fast, and then slows down and becomes very sludgy and doomy.
11) Mid-tempo, dark, with staccato riffs that’ll be the joy of pits everywhere.

FCC:: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13 ::FCC