Galactic Cowboys
Let It Go

I found an album, or rather a group, that IlConte might really like! Not like all those soft progsters, with bulb heads like country cousins, I keep rambling about around here.

Well, I don’t frequent heavy metal much. No thrash, growl, speed, death, hair, nu, industrial for me. Sure, the early Black Sabbath, of course, legendary. I also have a soft spot for Saxon. And then I've given the green light to some progressive metal, but cautiously. And come on, even Alter Bridge! But then, that's it.

But these Texan metalheads here, I adore them, literally. I love them, they're really strong. They play... what do they play? Beatles Metal”? Cazzon Metal? Seriously, these Galactic Cowboys are definitely a crossover band if ever there was one: they combine the most devastating guitars and pounding drumbeats with a plethora of choruses, melodies everywhere, jazz or country variations, quiet interludes abruptly demolished by the return of the loudest noise possible. Then sometimes they indulge in genius nonsense, in this album, for example, there's a giant one: the seventeenth(!) and last song, a piece over twelve minutes long filled with noises, moans, and sounds of all kinds, hundreds of them. Title? “The Record Ends”, there you go.

These guys from Houston do not lack irony, nor instrumental, compositional, and vocal skill. They vaguely remind of King's X, their friends and neighbors, who have always supported them by taking them on tour and collaborating on their albums. There is mutual admiration.

The introduction to the album is equally out of this world: a drastic and definitive change of genre is announced for them “...We decided to switch to hip-hop!”. But instead, a massive guitar riff arrives, with perfect three-part harmonies over it. Unbelievable. As if McCartney, Lennon, and Harrison were singing “She Loves You” accompanied by Anthrax, what fun!

These all-round artists (the creative covers are by the bassist himself) aren’t afraid to make unmarketable music, to play what’s in their heads without compromise, and above all to always keep the irony alive, to surprise, to shuffle the cards. And they certainly pay for it... too few pay attention to them. But I do; I love them and I have (almost) all their albums. “Let It Go”, year 2000, their seventh and second-last, is my favorite: endless, varied, and imaginative. May Bach bless them.