LOWDOWN – Unknown

Lowdown spits in your face with their new album Unknown. Maybe spit isn’t a strong enough verb; how about puke? Yeah, that’ll work. This is an explosive CD, full of brutal anger, rabid vocals and intense musicianship. They crank the hell out of every song, leaving no room for you to catch your breath. Plus, they have an innate ability to use the best word ever in a rock song, and that’d be “fuck,” if you don’t know any better. Songs 1, 2 and 3 are smattered with the “fuck” word.

Lowdown can be heaped in the same pile as bands like Slipknot and Killswitch Engage. But where they differ is the part where both of those aforementioned bands offer some melody, some smooth vocal points, usually at the chorus, where it slows down and any dipshit can sing along with. But Lowdown doesn’t want your vocal cords to rest.

This kind of music is going to have certain qualities. No guitar solos is one of them, and it’s too bad. They sound like good musicians, and it’d be great to hear them rip it up. Also, you are going to hear the exact same vocals over and over and over a million times a song. It’s almost like they think their fans are so stupid, if they give them more than 3 or 4 words, they’ll lose their attention. This isn’t Lowdown’s fault; it’s the genre’s fault.

Let’s get to the songs. The opening track is everything described above: brutal, repetitive and catchy as hell. “Unknown” is an excellent intro to the Lowdown sound. The second song, “Intenz,” (sic) gives you one of those nu metal rap choruses that even a mute could sing along to. It’s remedial rock, caveman metal. But you have to judge a band by the genre they choose to play in, and in this case, Lowdown is heads over heals more interesting than Slipknot. Instead of slowing it down, they just continually get harder. Think Rob Zombie on steroids and speed.

The two best songs on the CD are “Finding Truth,” and “State of Mind. Sadly, the vocalist is stuck grunting and barking the entire time. “You can fuck me when I die,” is probably one of the strangest vocal lines you’ll hear on the album, but hey, it gets your attention. “State of Mind,” starts with another insanely monotonous line, over and over and over and over and over, but the music itself is ferally hypnotic. In this song, you can actually hear vocalist Leo Moracchioli attempt to sing a few lines. It’s too bad he doesn’t diversify his voice a little more; you can tell Leo can wail.

The last song, “Struggling,” has a cool guitar part accompanied by Leo yelling “Lowdown! Lowdown! Lowdown!” What’s another word for repetitive? Oh yeah, “unending,” that’ll do the trick.

Lowdown has the elements in place to create some great music. At this time, they have pigeonholed themselves into a genre, and think they have to sound a specific way. The beauty of music is, there are no rules. Once they figure that part out, you can expect some innovative things from them in the future. But for now, Unknown is a definite quick fix.