ONE YOU MAY HAVE MISSED IN 2010: RED GIANT’S DYSFUNCTIONAL MAJESTY

Metallica’s transition from the genre-solidifying Master Of Puppets to the arena-ready hard rock of Load and Re-Load was a jarring experience for longtime fans still clutching their denim vests. The problem wasn’t that they put out those (ultimately multi-platinum) records, but that they had the audacity to call them Metallica albums. Between you and me, if Load had been the debut of any other band, it’d have been hailed and praised. That’s sort of how I’ve come to view Red Giant: an alternate reality version of what Lars and the boys might’ve done if unburdened of their obligations to thrash. The twelve tracks on Dysfunctional Majesty, the Cleveland, Ohio band’s second album for Small Stone Recordings, sound like James Hetfield fronting Monster Magnet, which I assure you is as balls-to-the-wall awesome as that analogy suggests. It’s another headbanging good time from the same label that brought you Gozu and House Of Broken Promises.

Check out the stream for “Chopper” below and snag a copy of the record here.

-GS