Worship Metal Album Of The Week – Doomsday Outlaw – Suffer More
Almost a year to the day after Doomsday Outlaw’s Black River was a Worship Metal Album of the Week recommendation, these wily scamps from Derbyshire – by way of Jacksonville, Florida if their Southern rock/metal is anything to go by – are back with the sophomore Suffer More and we’ve no choice but to make this outstanding record, album of the week….again!
First things first, there’s a little more shine, sheen and glitz to Suffer More, an understandable nod to wider consumption perhaps, and while the influence of the legendary The Allman Brothers Band, .38 Special and Blackfoot looms large, there’s also a Led Zeppelin feel and even a grunge(!) edge to some songs. The result is an extremely varied album, incorporating elements from the entire history of classic rock and metal and a deft touch with dynamics.
The chug-heavy “Walk On Water”, “Fallback” and the 52 second “Pandemonium” (the finest 1 minute of heavy metal we’ve heard this year incidentally) recall the band that made their debut so damn delicious but the one year growth – and we’re not just describing the enviable beard length of their drummer – is most evident in the epic Skynyrd-esque anthems “All That I Have” and “Tale Of A Broken Man”; all brawn and bluster balanced by a compassionate clutch of range and depth and superb songwriting.
That grunge comparison comes to light on the Alice In Chains-esque title track. An album highlight that should further endear these hard working harbingers of hard rock to the masses, “Suffer More” showcases an indefatigable grasp of what makes these semi-ballads so damn addictive and is purpose-built for hordes of festival audiences to sing in gleeful unison. All in all, Suffer More is quality, for want of a more adventurous description, a 15 track excursion into absolutely everything that makes Southern rock/metal so timeless and Doomsday Outlaw may have just crowned themselves kings of 2016 with this release.
In our original review of Black River, we described these guys as “mountain men blindly swigging from moonshine brewed in their own piss” (this was a compliment we assure you) and we’d like to take this opportunity to now elaborate on our rather vulgar choice of words. With Suffer More, Doomsday Outlaw have upped the ante considerably, they’re still mountain men but they’ve moved on from moonshine and they’re now sipping champagne, celebrating the fact that they’ve kicked the ‘second album curse’ square in the cock.
Sophomore slump? Don’t be stupid. Doomsday Outlaw could release an album every 6 weeks and it’d be better than 99% of the bands out there! 9/10
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