The Damned Things-Ironiclast

Mercury Records 2010

The problem with most super groups is that the sum very rarely equals the whole. Usually you end up with fan's of one group or another upset that it sounds too much like band X and not band Y or Z. With the Damned Things you have members of Anthrax, Every Time I Die and Fall Out Boy playing the role of "super group". I'm in the rare position of having heard and listened to all three bands (when you have a wife and a pre-teen daughter who prefer "popular" music you end up having a lot of interesting music in your Itunes). My first impression of The Damned Things was that they sounded a lot like radio metal bands with some classic rock thrown in. I guess they are supposed to be a throw back classic rock kind of band. Yeah, I can see that. But honestly I could really hear the rhythm section of Fall Out Boy in this album. As I said radio rock. It amazes me that people are hailing this as an awesome rock record. It is more rock than true metal which is weird to say with Scoot & Rob from Anthrax involved. Don't get me wrong Rob does a good job on the production giving it a gritty retro rock sort of feel to it. But even after repeated listens I still felt like I was missing something. It never rose above just being ok for me. It just felt too much like what every other radio rock/metal band is doing these days to me.