Collisions and Muffins

How many of you have heard about the small town of Kenai, Alaska? Anyone? No?

Well now you have, and you can thank me for telling you about it. This unknown town about as far from civilization as you can get in the United States birthed the metal band known as 36 Crazyfists. This four piece has been bringing the pain for over 15 years now, and the time they've put in has shown.

A follow up to 2008's The Tide And Its Takers, their fifth studio album Collisions And Castaways is not only a great listen, but it's their best effort to date.

The album takes about 90 seconds to really start to pick up with an instrumental introduction to the album-opener that fades in to start track number one. After that wait, though, these Alaskan boys grab you by the throat. They continue the trend with one of my favorites on the album, "Whitewater" - a wicked metalcore song with face-melting guitars and driving drums, complimented nicely by Brock Lindow's vocals. The pace keeps up at near breakneck speeds until halfway through the album with the track "Long Road To The Late Nights" - an instrumental track that showcases the talent level of all the musicians in the band, as guitar, bass, and drums mesh perfectly. However, after this brief reprieve, the metal comes back with a little bit of a southern bite on "Trenches". The boys of 36 Crazyfists close the album with "Waterhaul II". Those familiar with the band will recognize this as the sequel to a song off of 2004's A Snow Capped Romance. I thought this was a great way to close the album, and a perfect continuation of the "Waterhaul" series.

On the technical end of things, the mixing on this album is superb. Nothing is lost when listening to this release. The guitar, bass, drums, and vocals work together wonderfully. In addition, this album shows an evolution in sound from The Tide. Brock's vocals have a more refined feel in both the screams and in the clean sections, and the instruments have the high quality we've come to expect from 36 Crazyfists.

Overall, the Alaskan quartet has added another great album to their discography, and to the list of great metal albums of 2010. I highly recommend Collisions and Castaways to people who love metal, people who love the band, or people who love Alaska, because, let's be honest, Alaska is metal.