Striking Distance - The Bleeding Starts Here

The bleeding starts here, which either means that there is going to be massive warfare inflicted upon me, a band chasing me with knives of mass destruction, or my eardrum will be pierced by some sort of sonic guerilla evil. Does this make any sense? It might not, but Striking Distance's latest effort does have a bit of an effect, and that would be... GRAAAAHHH! The skinny: Striking Distance hasn't improved or gotten worse since their last CD, The Fuse Is Lit, which I deemed magnificent, by the way. But Striking Distance still has the same chutzpah, the same anger, the same surging guitar and the same slaying lyrics and machine-gun fire drums. Same throbbing bass that makes the Metallica MTV Icon performance seem ludicrious, as we're obviously paying homage to the wrong band. Striking Distance are tight (just listen to "Focus" and see why James Hettfield is the cowardly lion) and this signs through on The Bleeding Starts Here with reckless energy. The band obviously inhales dynamite with its Adderol, because only a band as professional as this could start out with feedback and then assault you with the aural conciseness of "Fail Me Fail You" and the lyric "fail me/ fuck you" and mean it. If you want a hardcore starter kit and still be able to use a black-painted cinder-blocked toilet with panache, then Striking Distance is the band you should start with, as they ain't gonna get all different on you, but at least they'll maintain their angsty, seamless and jowly grunt. [www.strikingdistance.net]