Hailing from Wilmington North Carolina, ASG hit us with their long awaited fourth studio album, Blood Drive.
Five years between albums is a long time and can put immense amounts of pressure on a band to deliver the goods. Speculation starts to form that a band has run out of ideas, lost their direction, or developed a lack of drive.
At first listen it didn’t strike me as hard as Win Us Over did, and that disappointed me. I felt the songs didn’t leave as much of an impact as they did on Win Us Over. Then I stopped listening for what was, and started listen to what is.
Blood Drive is as driven and focused as anything ASG have released.
Whilst Win Us Over smacked you in the face with its fine edged riffage and its angst ridden screams, Blood Drive wants you to live inside it, crawl into its crevices and nooks, explore what each instrument is doing, and why it is doing it.
The fine edged riffs are still as slicing as always, with their sleaze ridden groove and harmonious harmonies. It’s the vocals that have been tuned back a little. They’re a little less angst ridden and a whole lot more melodically driven. The angst is still there – it’s just got a more grown-up sense of passion.
ASG aren’t afraid to let the music speak for itself. A lot of the time you’ll find yourself adrift in a maze of riffs, only to be lead to the hedge covered exit by a finely executed transient vocal.
Let’s look a few of my favorite tracks on Blood Drive.
I’ll start with “Day’s Work”:
Sludge and doom fuel the fire here with a riff that could have spawned from the missing fingers of Tony Iommi himself, and a lyrical expression of boredom that’s anything but droll. It all builds to an eerie guitar solo that is passionately thought out, each note drifting through musical space with heart and soul.
Watch “Day’s Work”
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“Blues for Bama” has to be my next favorite track from Blood Drive:
With its deep and haunting clean vocal, it beckons you to the woods of wonder and intrigue. Funny, on that first listen I didn’t think “Blues for Bama” had anything to offer me. But! As I said before, I was listening for what was, and not what is.
“Hawkeye” (not a track about the wise cracking doctor from M.A.S.H.):
 This is a track about being talked to by an ordinary life and refusing to meet it. Well, that’s what I hear in what is the most vocally aggressive track on Blood Drive. “Hawkeye” is almost Queens of the Stone Age in its structure, yet Mastodon in its guitar approach.Â
However short the songs may be, Blood Drive is not a record for those with short attention spans. It wants you to take your time with it – wants you to need to listen to it, and it certainly won’t be leaving your rotation any time soon.
If you like your stoner metal in short efficient bursts of guitar driven energy that beg your attention, I highly recommend picking up Blood Drive.
Visit ASG Online on the links below
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