Imagine you’re 15 years old. You and your best friend have just gotten stoned for the first time, you’re laying around his rec room. Your shoes are off, the sun is shining through the windows, you’re listening to metal albums. You start to notice that in every song there’s that one part: The Awesome Part. The music accelerates, or crescendos, or shifts suddenly, and you look at each other and say, “That. Was. Awesome.” Then, because you’re stoned, you vow to some day make an album of all awesome parts. Just awesome parts, strung together by mad kickassology scientists into a tapestry of pure ***ing awesomeness! Then you go back to munching on Cheez-Its.
Except these five guys from Rhode Island went and did it. Fang Island’s eponymous debut is an album of all awesome parts, a sound they hilariously describe as “everyone high-fiving everyone.” I would call it joyous metal, and I won’t lie: it’s an acquired taste. It can be overwhelming, like doing keg stands with Gatorade. But I can’t get enough.
Consider this song, “Sidewinder.” It starts as a speedmetal chug. About 1:35 in, it becomes a triumphant chant. Then at around 2:15 it becomes a melodic riff, and then at 3:00 … the harmonized twin-guitar attack! To top things off, around 3:45, a towering metal squeal. All awesome parts. Turn it up.
