The Damned Things
Ironiclast

The supergroup always breeds distrust; at best, you have Them Crooked Vultures on your hands - that is, a record as pleasant as it is unassuming, where the three occasionally go off on a tangent to show off their skills, but in the end, it offers 50 minutes of well-played rock, which is never a bad thing these days. At worst, you end up with... well, examples here could fill the entire review, and I’d say that's unnecessary.

The Damned Things consist of 6 members, evenly divided among Anthrax (the guitars of Ian and Caggiano), Fall Out Boy (Trohman's guitar and Hurley's drums), and Every Time I Die (Newton on bass and Buckley on vocals); a mix that seems quite absurd but proves to be decidedly successful with the debut listen of "Ironiclast".

I feared a lighter, but not too much, version of Every Time I Die, with Buckley as usual producing lengthy texts to fit into complex rhythms. The surprise materializes to my ears from the opener "Handbook For The Recently Deceased," where all the members, despite evident nods to the peculiarities of their respective experiences, forge a shamelessly catchy sound (hey, the two from Fall Out Boy are there for a reason, after all), upon which Buckley's excellent voice triumphs, finally free to showcase his qualities even in clean vocals. The next two tracks are equally powerful: "Bad Blood" vaguely reminds me of Turbonegro, "Friday Night (Going Down In Flames)" is an amazing slice. The central part, also containing the first single "We’ve Got A Situation," is perhaps slightly weaker, although still at a sufficient level, indicating that the formula developed by the 6, which can be summarized as "Anthrax-style prominent guitars + unconventional Every Time I Die-style rock 'n' roll + stadium choruses à la Fall Out Boy," works very well nonetheless. After the weakest track of the batch ("A Great Reckoning"), the level rises significantly with "Little Darling," an irresistible track that sounds like Scars On Broadway if they had a decent singer. Towards the end of the album, the Buckley we know resurfaces at times, with screams now cleverly integrated into the mechanism of the new group (even though the title track has strong nods to the more melodic side of Every Time I Die, as much as they can be defined as such).

The finale is still at very high levels with "Graverobber," which seems like a nod to the two from Anthrax, who insert their typical riffs here and there without excessively altering the structure of the track that remains perfectly in line with the previous ones, and "The Blues Havin' Blues," my personal favorite track and a worthy closure to an album that reveals how excellent performances can be expected from supergroups, in anticipation of seeing how these tracks will perform live, given that they will open for System Of A Down on June 2, hoping that this "Ironiclast" can someday have a successor of equal quality.