Adder
Let It Rip
4.6
The year 2004 saw the formation of the New Jersey band Adder and within a year the band had their first demo released while setting up shows to help promote the name. After what I can only presume was a honing of their influences and musicianship over the past two years, Adder went back to the studio and recorded a six song EP.
Upon my first listen to Let it Rip I found it hard not to make initial comparisons to Pantera, Machine Head, and Shadows Fall, as the music is based in the part thrash, part modern groove style that many a nameless bar band picks up before fading away. One problem initially comes if the listener is familiar with the output of the previously mentioned bands as you will certainly hear some quite familiar moments on this disc. There also seems to be some timing issues as I find that some musical elements do not gel together as they should, leaving some sections sounding out of sync (some vocals in the opening track, “Villain”, remind me of William Murderface recording vocals for his Planet Piss project…). That said, while Adder’s music is not offensive in the least I would be hard pressed to call this an exciting or inspired affair.
“Villain” is the song on the album that’s most firmly rooted in thrash metal; I actually got the feeling of early 90’s thrash in some of the riffs, especially the lead out section starting at 3:03. The main riff in “This Means War” is extremely familiar, not only in its vague similarity to Death Angel’s “Bored” but because of at least one Pantera or Machine Head (can’t put a direct name on this one) song containing a pretty similar riff as well. Not surprisingly this song fails to excite aside from this main riff and its post-solo rock groove, pleasantly, reminds me of something akin to Pantera’s “I’m Broken”. As the album continues a heavier emphasis on groove, breakdowns, and some rather Shadows Fall-like moments start to wear greatly on me and I can’t help but say the rest of the proper album tracks just flow together and lead me to paying less and less attention. There’s nothing to truly grab the listener; to make one sit up and take notice, it’s simply more of the same and why bother when I’ve heard it before and done so much better?
In the end, while the this release falls into the traps and pitfalls of what modern (if we can even call it that, there's been over 12 years of this stuff already) metal has to offer, it ends up being the southern flavored acoustic track that delivers something that I can hold up as something of note. While “Sleeping Dogs” reminds me heavily of Primus, I can’t say I don’t nod and sway to the acoustic groove.
When I listen to Let it Rip I have a hard time believing Adder will be able to make a name for themselves in an overcrowded genre that sees bands with more money, bigger labels, and better albums get little to no attention.
