Thrall: Chemical Wedding

Ex-God Bullies singer Mike Hard has always come off as pretty intense. Now he's the leader of Thrall, and little has changed. The only difference is that he's not backed by as good a band. That is to say, they're competent, even talented players, but they just don't play with anything resembling innovation. Instead, they endlessly repeat the same riffs while Hard rants and raves about whatever—usually government conspiracies, religious censorship of ideas, and other like-minded themes. This is a problem. With the musical weirdness of the God Bullies, Hard's monotonous growlings fit right in. Without it, though, Hard's rants are little more than curiosities. The band suffers because of its non-challenging singer, and Hard suffers because of his non-challenging band, but maybe by the time Thrall's next album comes out, something will give.