Wow! Just wow! The new single from Canada’s Them County Bastardz, “The Bastard,” hits in the gut like a ton of bricks. The track — a blend of thrash metal, groove, doom, and post-grunge alt metal — has a sick groove on all fronts, but especially from the bass, and the pocket the drummer is in is warm, cozy, and as precise as it is loose. The main guitar riff is tough as shit, but the guitar solo could have been brought forward in the mix. The clean vocals at the top and the Randy Blythe-like vocals are superb.
The downfall of this track, however, is the hip-hop vocal delivery in parts, or perhaps it’s more the hip-hop motions the singer goes through while singing them. The easy solution is to not watch the video, then you don’t have to see the awkward movements, but you’d also miss out on a pretty cool video with a kick-ass Dodge Super Bee.
Vocalist Andrew Watson commented on the video:
This video shows our view of what a bastard is in the modern world. It was our first attempt at a video, and was a hell of a good time for all involved. Everyone you see is part of our music family. I would like to thank SmokeHouse Productions, for working in cahoots with us. Thanks to Kenny Rogers (not that Kenny Rogers) for the use of the Super Bee, which almost ended this video in a speeding ticket. I hope you all enjoy it, Cheers!
“The Bastard” lives on Them County Bastardz’ newly released debut album, Sick Daze, (Smokehouse Records), which is available on iTunes and Bandcamp.
Rock Hard \m/