Rock & Muffins Ain't Dead

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is some gold ol' fashioned, down home southern goodness. Embracing Goodbye has crafted a pure southern metal album. This North Carolina five-piece has come to give you a taste of the south, and make sure you never forget it.

Rock & Roll Ain't Dead is the debut full length from Embracing Goodbye, and was released through Driven Music Group earlier this year. Somehow, I managed to miss out on these guys until about two weeks ago when I mistakenly stumbled upon them. I am so glad I did.

Southern metal, for those who don't know, is a style of music that combines metal (usually a post-hardcore or thrash style) with a swing beat. To put it simply, it gives you heavy music that you just want to get up and move to. Oh, and it's got 13 tracks with a runtime of just shy of an hour. Yeah, they didn't short-change you.

No intro track could convey the way EG operates, so they decided to get right to the punch with "And the Horse You Rode In On". It's got a swinging, thrashing guitar opener with drums to match. Then we get Paul Huffman's dirty, gritty vocals. I don't know if a man has ever been more suited to a job than Paul, because his style is the essence of southern metal. With a wonderful ability to switch from clean, albeit gritty, to guttural growls, he gives weight to the lyrics that demands a listen. "Hm Is A Drt" is the next standout, with a wicked little southern riff to kick it off and the rest of the band follows suit. "The Reckoning of John Law" gives us a different angle of this style, with clean vocals and screams working together to provide an anthem that will get you up out of your seat.

Now, what good southern boy could possibly forget his mama? Not these ones, that for sure. "Mama" is a rip-roaring good time with breakdowns galore. My personal favorite, "Twelve Gauge Vices" hits like a shotgun blast to the chest. Embracing Goodbye pulls all the punches on this one, throwing breakdowns, hooks, and growls in everywhere. They close the album with "There's a Click Before the Strike", which is a two-stage attack in the form of a hidden track. Part one is the thrashingly good time we've grown to love. Part two starts off as what can only be described as a ballad (and there are few things in life better than a southern ballad) and builds into a heavy finisher.

Southern metal is an extremely underrated and underappreciated genre of music. It combines the energy of swing with the passion of metal, and I would love to see more of it. Embracing Goodbye has put together an album that rivals the works of southern metal greats like Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and The Showdown. In a genre that is only beginning to build its foundation, the boys of EG have laid down something that I truly hope stands the test of time. Definitely give these guys a spin, because they definitely proved that rock and roll is alive and kicking.

>Pawn