I first learned about Maylene & The Sons of Disaster after falling in love with Underoath’s album They’re Only Chasing Safety in 2004. That album is a magnum opus in the post-hardcore genre, I was completely obsessed, and I soaked up everything associated with the band. Upon doing a little bit of research and listening to their older releases (especially 2002’s The Changing of Times) I found that their old vocalist Dallas Taylor had left the band and started his own.
Enter Maylene & The Sons of Disaster, and enter pure rock and roll bliss. Everything I loved about Underoath’s post-hardcore heaviness is here, with an added southern rock twist. The dual guitar attack of Scott Collum and Josh Cornutt is absolutely brutal in all the best ways, incorporating the dirty Southern Rock guitar patterns of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top but putting them within the context of half-time breakdowns and heavy chugs that dominate heavy metal music. The combination sits pretty much dead center in my musical taste Venn Diagram (especially the genres I sought it in my teens) and is an absolutely killer album that I’d recommend for anyone even remotely interested in hard rock and it’s various offshoots.
Standout Songs: “Caution: Dangerous Curves Ahead”, “Bang! The Witch Is Dead”, “Tough As John Jacobs”, “Lady At The Gate”, “Never Stop Haunting”
