Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Just one song from what could be considered a masterpiece of lyrical writing and a musical high, and even then the song that brings it down a notch is rather good, it just doesn’t fit into the album as a whole. For Theory of A Dead Man arguably won’t mind at all, not after bringing out perhaps the best recording in their history, the mind shattering and explosive Savages.
With the exception of Livin’ My Life Like A Country Song, every song on the album mauls the listener into submission, it mugs the aural pleasure centres as if you are under constant attack from a tiger who has learned the finer art of making music in its spare time, the jungle a natural hiding place in which to jump out on an unsuspecting explorer, snarl viciously and then play the guitar whilst eating everything but your soul. Some things are just so beautifully beastly that they demand to be applauded!
Although Theory of A Dead Man have strayed into the path of country rock before and that the softest track on the album, at least musically for its lyrics are quite biting, Livin’ My Life Like A Country Song seems out of place when placed next to such brutalising tracks such as Drown, the excellent Misery of Mankind, Salt In The Wound and the desolating appeal of World War Me. The song itself is out of context to what appears to be a underlying thread of demise in both the spirit and in trust in the greater good to keep the world in balance, harmony in the mind, memory and soul taken out the back and ruffed up to the point where nurses would be required and then from out of nowhere a song, tantalisingly good comes along and places a bandage upon the affected area, puts on a soothing record and lulls you into a different plane.
The rest of the album is dynamic, it has the feel of where Metallica should have gone after The Black Album and away from the realm they possessed during the Load/Reload/S And M period. Undeniably heavy, truly, as the album title suggests, savage, the tiger turning more feral and the guitar he handles screaming in heat, pain and adoration.
With the addition of the legendary Alice Cooper on the title track, this is one album that kicks back against the new home of Metal and Rock that has come forth out of the Nordic sphere of influence in the last couple of years.
It is about time and the result is spectacular.
Ian D. Hall