APESHIT

Scathing, alcoholic, vitriolic, cavity-inducing sludge metal from New Orleans? What are the odds? Who wants to bet that members of EYEHATEGOD and SOILENT GREEN are involved? On their followup to 2003’s Legalize Crime EP, OUTLAW ORDER’s debut album, Dragging Down the Enforcer, unleashes the disdain and agony one would expect from these hurricane surviving parolees with a palpable rage that practically oozes out of your speaker. Essentially EYEHATEGOD without Jimmy Bower, OUTLAW ORDER doesn’t stray far from that sound. Although the songs are less bluesier and more immediate, they drive “singer” Michael D. William’s piss and vinegar filled points home in a much more direct and focused manner. Engineer/producer David Troia soaks up the band’s rage with more clarity than EYEHATEGOD’s albums. But make no mistake, Dragging Down the Enforcer is as mean and filthy as they come. Another unflinchingly bleak outlook on life and the world as captured by four anguished, yet talented souls, forming a whiskey-soaked mountain of malice, suitable only for those brave enough to listen. (Season of Mist Records)