Artist: Maylene and the Sons of Disaster
Album: Maylene and the Sons of Disaster
Label: Mono VS Stereo
Tracks: 10
Length: 35:39

The Showdown was Christian music’s introduction to southern influenced hard rock/metal. While other bands had a southern twing before, notably Third Day, none had rocked or been as good as The Showdown. Maylene and the Sons of Disaster feel cut from a similar mold, only bringing fist pumping hardcore to the table. While I don’t think you could see Lynyrd Skynyrd screaming into a mic and sounding like Maylene, there is something deliciously fried and south of the Mason-Dixon Line about this album.

If it was just the addition of southern spices to mundane hardcore music this album would be a novelty that wears off quick. But this cd avoids that trap by writing songs that would be good even without the “spice.” The cd is catchy and bounces with the ease of early Stretch Armstrong, while throwing some metal and gang vocals into the mix, ala The Showdown.

Maylene and the Sons of Disaster created a buzz among fans of hard Christian music by featuring Dallas Taylor, an ex-member of Underoath. He left Underoath before their recent popularity explosion and this is his first post-Underoath musical statement. Hard music fans can be grateful that he isn’t trying to one-up his old band and created a cd that would stoop to the pop emo level. Maylene and the Sons of Disaster are definitely an upgrade.

While there are some problems with this album, for instance the vocals get somewhat redundant over the length of the cd causing tracks to bleed into each other, as a whole I wouldn’t be ashamed to have this playing if a music snob came over to visit.