Tallboy Shotgun - Killers, Kings, and Fools By Soup

If you’ve lived in the Northwest long enough and you love Metal, then you likely have heard of Tallboy Shotgun. To exclude the band in any conversation about Portland’s extreme music scene is to only tell part of the story. With their latest EP, Killers, Kings, and Fools, the band solidifies their place in the local landscape even further. From the twisted groove of the opening track “Haunted Hollow,” to the decimating “Hook & Hanger,” this release is as brutal as being hit in the balls with a truck. I swear I could feel my face peel off from the velocity of these songs. Drummer Austin Smith is like some possessed cyborg beast determined to destroy the skins. Bassist Wade Nelson punishes with his low, yet frantic, maneuvering. Guitarist Adam Smith crunches like he’s literally and metaphorically shaping metal, and vocalist Jon Kindsvogel scrapes, growls and snarls lyrics with a powerful intensity. Together with tracks like “Agent of Destruction” and the myriad caustic soundscapes that comprise “Dead Man,” Tallboy Shotgun shows the longtime fans they are still a force to be reckoned with and new fans that locally grown Metal music is alive and ready to eat your heart.     Killers, Kings, and Fools is proof that sometimes it is indeed possible to harness a sizable amount of the raw intensity of a band’s live show on a well recorded disc. It just takes a band with a solid work ethic who means every creative stroke they make with the seriousness of a knife at your throat. Tallboy Shotgun are sick men with sick minds who play sick music for sick people. Whatever comes next, we can expect it to possibly destroy us all.

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Published on: 2008-10-10 (2291 reads)