It’s always fun getting stuff from Small Stone. I’ll get an email with a link to download the music, cover art and hype sheet. I always go straight to the music and ignore the other stuff until I give it a few spins. The first song kicked in and I thought “wow, this sounds like Kyuss and Metallica. Who are these guys? What’s this song called?” The song is called “Blistering” and that’s exactly what it is. Turns out that House Of Broken Promises are basically Unida without singer John Garcia (ex-Kyuss). First impressions are important, so we’re off to a good start.Indio, CA is their hometown and city’s website claims it is “the place to be.” Chances are the bands jam room is the place to be judging by the heavy sounds these guys put down. This is full on kick ass metal with a strong dose of classic rock. Big guitars, booming bass and a healthy crash-bang-wallop on the drums. The vocals remind me a lot of John Garcia and James Hetfield before he started emoting feelings other than being pissed off.
The 11 songs on Using The Useless clock in at 50 minutes and are around 4 or 5 minutes each. Plenty of time to get into the groove but they never wear thin. “Obey The Snake” has a riff similar to “Devil’s Child” by Judas Priest and has a great solo like something off Thin Lizzy’s Thunder & Lightning album. Check out the guitar player’s huge ass beard. You can’t grow something like that without being able to rock.
“Psycho Plex” dares to graft a Pantera groove with Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold.” Other stand out jams are fast ones like “Highway Grit” and “The Hurt (Paid My Dues),” which features some killer drumming. The entire album rocks from start to finish and there’s plenty of variety so the party never gets dull. They even throw in a curveball on the Spanish language “Ladron.” Somewhere, Juanes is not happy. The only disappointment is that “Walk On By” is not a heavy ass cover of the Dionne Warwick hit. It’s a catchy, hard hitting rock song but it’s always been a dream of mine to hear that song in a Sabbath/Isaac Hayes arrangement. Maybe on the next album. These guys have a lot of talent, write good songs and play the hell out of them so I have a feeling they will be making ears bleed for a long time coming.
--Woody
buy here: Using the Useless
http://www.myspace.com/houseofbrokenpromises
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