Floodgate
Penalty

Once upon a time there were the Exhorder, a band that enormously influenced one of the greatest thrash metal bands, I'm talking about the "immense" Pantera of the much-lamented Dimebag Darrell, one of the most influential and innovative guitarists of recent times, who died on December 8, 2004, at the hands of a madman while doing what he loved most, playing on stage with his new project "Damageplan" alongside his brother Vinnie Paul.

It is in "Cowboys From Hell" that Pantera credits Exhorder, a not-too-fortunate band that broke up after only two albums and a demo, "The Gun" (1986), "Slaughter In The Vatican" (1990) and "The Law" (1992), inadvertently giving rise to controversies about the "Exhorder-style plagiarism" by the band of Phil Anselmo & co.

Within Exhorder was a hugely talented singer, one Kyle Thomas (now with Alabama Thunderpussy), who, after the Exhorder adventure, formed Floodgate and gifted us this pearly meteor that would unfortunately have no follow-up as it remains the band's only studio work. But what a work..

If you're interested in a voice with all the attitude, full-bodied, powerful, capable of rising in pitch while maintaining the same hoarse intensity and distorting into scream without blinking, demonstrating remarkable versatility, with down-tuned, rich guitars, Sabbathian offspring, akin to desert-like grit, combined with a steamroller of drums and bass, this could be the album for you, provided you can find it.. There's truly an abundance of resonances to explore here, from grunge to southern rock, from stoner to the splendor of the seventies (ever winking at the "heaviness" of Black Sabbath and the monolithic riffs of Uncle Iommi, forever praised).

Floodgate starts off strong with the overwhelming "Shivering", where the drums and bass act as an unstoppable locomotive, and the guitars blend riffs like lava flows, accompanied by the "dual" voice (or am I the only one who hears it?) reminiscent of Alice in Chains, followed closely by "Through My Days Into Nights" (I sense a Nirvana-esque quality in the guitar work, though I may be wrong, you be the judge), the powerful "Before The Line Divides" and the unsettlingly ponderous with its slow advance "Those Days". There's no respite in the first five tracks, as evidenced by the following "Till My Soul", but you need to break the rhythm eventually, so as not to become too repetitive, hence the ballad arrives shamanistically on the desert Sabbathical way "Planet Caravanian", with "Whole", allowing us to catch our breath for a moment before the next, yet another barrage "Second Guesser", where no one is spared, especially Thomas's nail-hard voice, the same goes for "Running With Sodden Legs", while the tones calm down a bit, but not the heaviness, make no mistake, in "Imitation Salvation" and its wall of guitars attached. If you haven't had enough yet, one of the best tracks on the album, "Fell You Burn", takes you by the hand, showcasing all of Thomas' vocal talent and leading you to the conclusive slap of "Black With Sin". And goodnight..

After such a debut, the only thing left to do was to break up..