Georgia is home to strong sports teams like the Georgia bulldogs in college football as well as the Atlanta Braves for professional baseball – yet not necessarily as well known for its metal bands. Maybe this trio Crazy Mad Ride could put the state on the map – executing an interesting blend of groove-oriented thrash and rock ‘n’ roll through their debut EP Life, Liberty, Death. Stylistically these gentlemen navigate into dynamic terrain with the songwriting, exploring some radio-friendly terrain as well as a longer epic effort that keeps things very entertaining over the course of the four tracks.
When looking into the guitar play of Doc Lopez and Brandon Barker, the duo infuses a classic hard rock, guitar hero aspect into their speedy riffs or twin harmony abilities that fill the aural landscape with tasty treats of heavy treasures. Check out some of the natural melodic runs against the conventional heavy rhythms during the 8:39 “Scorpio”, and you’ll feel a mix of Metallica, Megadeth, and older traditional metal aspects that keep ears pinned because of the smart, fluid transitions against the progressive to groove-laden tempo shifts. Specific special effect thunderstorms roll into the calmer instrumentation for “The Deceiver”, which soon hits “Creeping Death”-like measures against galvanized riffs, the main vocals from Brandon snarling at similar paces as the bouncy musical accompaniment, flashy shredding leads also magnifying the pounding, metal to the bone nature of the arrangement. The groovy, Southern-oriented charm comes through on opener “Lunacy”, drummer Dewayne Bjorn hitting his main parts hard with a slight progressive edge in certain instrumental sequences, the simplified one-word chorus aligning to classic Sepultura meets Pantera measures.
Life, Liberty, Death is a solid introduction into the world of Crazy Mad Ride – their affinity for thrash as well as classic rock ‘n’ roll giving the band a wide array of influences to shape into hopefully a sound all their own. Time will tell as the development of the group unfolds over the course of the next record.