ALBUMS THAT WILL F*CK YOUR FACE OFF IN 2011: SCORCHED-EARTH POLICY, TBA
Scorched-Earth Policy
TBA
Label – Self-release
Release date – Spring 2011
Back in 2001, my first taste of Slipknot’s then-forthcoming sophomore album, Iowa, was a two-minute piece of “The Heretic Anthem.” The snippet was found on a wee little mini-CD from Roadrunner Japan alongside similarly abridged jams by Fear Factory, Ill Nino, Bat Cave, Sepultura, and, uh, Cairo, among others. The weird thing is that this CD5-shaped Reader’s Digest of macho gruntcore — clearly designed for overhead play at Japan’s CD superstores — stayed in heavy rotation at my place for months. Crazy, right? But you can see how, once distilled to its 120-second essence, no song could overstay its welcome or commit an unforgivable gaffe — even Ill Nino’s! And listening to them all was like taking a healthy bite of twelve different pizza slices, some undercooked, most boldly similar, and totally fun! Even Ill Nino’s!
Sigh. I hadn’t thought of that Roadrunner teaser CD5 in nearly a decade; it probably would’ve remained forgotten if not for San Francisco’s Scorched-Earth Policy, whose six+ minute new album sampler (below) is now threatening to topple its reign as Most Valuable Collection of Awesome Song Clips With Diabolically Premature Fade-Outs. Each slamming S-EP excerpt points to a face-fucking 2011 release via top-heavy, staggered tempos, post-Testament grooves, and — this is the best part — just shitloads of vocals: You can easily imagine singer Judd Mason’s layers of big harmonies, swooping wails, and powergrowls raising the eyebrows/wangs of Warrel Dane, Randy Blythe, Bjorn “Speed” Strid and Russ Anderson. The dude is a mega-stud.
Guitarist Mark Lamb told me the set is now being mixed (with co-producer Thilo Fehlinger) for an April release, that it is not yet titled (he passed on my suggestion), and that song names haven’t been finalized (again, Lamb declined to name any in my honor). Instead, Lamb states that the band is focused “on finishing the record” and, presumably, capitalizing on their nice showing in last winter’s No Label Needed contest.
-ADF
Listen to Scorched-Earth Policy music here. Band info here.
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