Maylene and the Sons of Disaster

It's been a long time, too long, time for an album review.

Maylene and the Sons of Disaster - Self Titled.

I'd compare listening to this album to being kicked in the face and enjoying it! It's southern metal at it's purest containing everything I love about those southern US States. It's raw, it's gritty, it's dirty, it's powerful and in the strangest of ways it's so very beautiful.
It's one of a kind, an album that could never be made again, an album you can't ignore. I'm not trying to sell it, I just love it, after all what's the point in writing about it if I don't?

Fronted by Dallas Taylor formerly of Underoath, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster released their Self Titled album on Mono Vs Stereo records in 2005. I personally first heard about them from a friend who earlier had introduced me to Underoath, what a good friend. I first actually heard them only when I brought their album which I did while at spring harvest. I was more excited concerning the genre of the band that they were being sold at such a mainstream Christian festival and brought it solely for that reason rather than expectation of what it'd deliver. This made it's delivery knock me back that much further. The rest of that day was somewhat of an inconvenience to my emotions. In short, I split up with the girl I was currently with and subsequently not particularly in the mood for any music as heavy as Maylene deliver it. On the same day I brought an album by One Hundred Hours and it seemed more appropriate to let that consume any listening time I had. Feeling a need for a deliberate attempt to lift myself from the pit I'd dropped into I recalled the album purchased the day before and fished it out of the bag it was still in. Music dictates mood, I couldn't change my mood but I could change the music, so it went on. The scream, the guitars, the bass and the drums all hit instantly and simultaneously. I was listening and I wasn't about to turn it off. Bam! For the next 35 minutes and 21 seconds I banged my head, I tapped my foot, I air drummed, I played air guitar, I partook in a spot of solo moshing and I yelled, I yelled free of all inhibitions. When I stopped for breath I took the time to contemplate the lyrics. Contemplation became an important word, the album finishes in stark contrast to it's start on a soft note. Though the guitars still had that southern twang they drifted rather than jumped, the voice lost not an ounce of southernness either but it chose the whisper instead of the shout. The drums sat out till near the end where they added emphasis with a slow beat as things picked up a little. The melodic atmosphere didn't leave with the build but infact intensified. The lyrics spoke of suicide, the search for affection and approval and the concession that it wont be found. The exit was a drop, a necessary one. They'd took you on a journey, literally told you a story and left you with time to think about it and a mood where you wanted to think about it, Artistic manipulation, for me craftsmanship.
The story talks of brothers who are also a gang of criminals on the run. More specifically they talk about the legend of the Ma Baker gang, a criminal gang who were very famous in Dallas' hometown. At the heart of all this gang do is a need to work for approval from their mother, this fails. In the end one of the sons kills himself. The band retells the story of this gang each taking up the role as one of the brothers to act out the tale through music. Dallas while speaking about the purpose behind this used the phrase "what goes around comes around". He suggested that we will be held accountable for the actions of our lives and that in this life or the next consequences will be suffered. He states that "divine justice is unavoidable".
I didn't fully understand this without later research and after one listen, if I had it might have given me a little perspective on life and inspired a ferverance to live right before G-d despite emotions or circumstances. As it was it just provided a temporary distraction.
However deep you want to go, it's an incredible album!