Dollar Bin Discoveries: Spit Can-Spit Can

Knuckle Down Productions
2007

I'm not exactly sure if this is the sole release from Pennsylvania's Spit Can or what. Formerly known as Cyphilis, which, let's face it folks, isn't much better or worse of a name then Spit Can, this band was billed to me as a cross between Pantera, Clutch and Prong. That's about the extent of the (online) information that I was able to dig up when I first stumbled across this CD in a dollar bin. It's a fair enough assessment. Further online snooping  revealed that all of this material on this nine-track CD was previously available on earlier Cyphilis albums. Well, eight of them at least as the last track on this self-titled release, "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck", is a cover of Prong cover. You can usually tell a lot about a band by any/all particular tracks that they might choose to cover and with Spit Can we're talking prime-time Prong worship on about half of these numbers. Is that a bad thing? Well, if you love Prong (and I do!) then the answer is probably no. And this band, which has a guitarist who goes by the name of Germ(!), does Prong proud and then some! While the band's previous incarnation (Cyphilis) also reportedly dabbled with influences like Hatebreed and System Of A Down (in addition to the Prong, Clutch and Pantera elements!) here Germs (along with lead vocalist Nick D., bassist Deuce and drummer Feist) relies on a much more stream-lined and more defined sound. With that being the case and all the heavy riffs that come from Germ are of the post-Clutch variety. That means while there is some fierce hardcore/thrash converging in the background up-front it does bear a slight resemblance to the (thankfully just about dead and buried) nu metal movement. It's not enough to ruin your appetite or anything, but a few more well-rounded guitar solos would have gone a long way with this Penn.-based four-piece. All in all it was most certainly worth the dollar I spent and other then the fact that a few number's do tend to blur together this ended up being one of the better bargain bin CDs that I've acquired in some time!