Tombstone Highway: Like Black Label Society if Black Label Society Were From Italy

I was just discussing the dearth of prominent banjo appearances in metal albums, and now here comes Tombstone Highway, a southern-fried metal band by two guys from Piacenza, Italy, and region not exactly known for its strong ties to the American South. (Not that there’s anything that screams “MAMA MIA! THAT’S A SPICY MEATBALL!” per se about the music of bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Lacuna Coil, and The Modern Age Slavery, but then again, there’s nothing that screams “FUCK YOUR OWN SISTER ATOP A CONFEDERATE FLAG BED SHEET!”, either.) Their new single, “Old Blood,” has a banjo doubling the main guitar riff for substantial portions of the song, and not only does it work — it’s killer. I defy you to listen to the first twenty-four seconds and not get the music stuck in your head.

Unfortunately, that’s really the only special thing about the song — unlike Taake, here the banjo is a gimmick not backed up by music that would be good even without special instrumentation. I mean, it’s not the worst song ever, but it’s basically Black Label Society-esque dumb shit metal (they don’t use quite as many guitar squeals as BLS… but it must be close). Just as bad, if not worse, is that the vocals have no impact whatsoever, the lyrics seem to have been written by a belligerent ten-year-old.

But that banjo… man, it gets me every time. I just wanna listen to those first twenty-four seconds on a loop.

Stream “Old Blood” here. It will appear on Tombstone Highway’s Ruralizer, which comes out in North America on April 16.