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Split releases are often hard to review. What do you do with two very different sets of sounds? Take this 7" for example, the debut release of Demon Problems records, which is a new label run by Early Mike. Early Mike is, of course, the lead singer in Early Man, the LA-based metal band that is on the A side here.
Early Man's tune is called Demon Problems, so i guess it is the theme song for the record label. It is also the most impressive of the three songs here, starting with a Black Sabbath-esque bluesy riff that lingers, then the whole band comes in and the song grinds along like something from Paranoid. The band speeds up slowly, eventually moving from Black Sabbath to Iron Maiden territory. Oddly enough, Early Mike's vocal delivery is more like Ronnie James Dio than the growl that is de rigueur in metal these days, and i find that works with the music here. Overall, i am impressed. This is fun little song.
On the B-side of the single we have two songs from It's Casual, and they get through both songs in less than three minutes. First is Suffering, which is all heavy riffing and the vocalist growling through his vocals in a very normal metal sort of way. The drummer though ... wow, he is playing pretty fast. The second track, Father To Me, is a similar tune although it seems to chug along instead of just barreling forward at a break neck pace like the first band. The vocalist growls, and power chords are used liberally. Neither of these songs are bad, but neither impresses me a lot either.
And that is the problem with split releases in a nutshell -- they are often a mixed bag. At least in this case the mixture is one of good and generic, instead of those split releases where one band's side is excellent, and the other seems like a waste of good vinyl. Here, the B-side just does nothing for me. I guess that people who are really into this type of stuff might enjoy it. Early Man are pretty interesting though.
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