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Superjoint Ritual: Use once and destroy
09/01/12 || Smalley
I haven’t really been able to get into Down yet, so when it comes to Phil Anselmo’s non-Pantera projects, Superjoint Ritual is pretty much it when it comes to anything I enjoy. Er, kind of enjoy; while their 2002 debut, “Use once and destroy”, does have some great energy at times, some undeniably catchy, punishing riffage, and doesn’t try to cash in on Pantera’s reputation by being a version 2.0 (for the most part), it also lacks a satisfying consistency of songwriting, and frustratingly waffles back-and-forth in-between styles, cutting way down on how much potential it actually fulfills. Which, considering how awesome Cowboys thru Driven-era Pantera was, is a LOT.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely good shit here; we hear Phil break away from the groove-driven nature of Pantera for more of a hardcore influence, with plenty of fast, short songs, and on catchy cuts like “Everyone hates everyone”, “Fuck your enemy”, “It takes no guts” (especially that one), and so on, we get nice, driving riffs, and an organized variation to the song change-ups, showing a level of craft and care that should’ve existed on every track. While the highlight songs aren’t 100% perfect, I’d be lying through my black tooth grin if I acted like I didn’t dig them. I also dig Phil changing his style to incorporate these raspy, scratchy shriek/screams; his more traditional vocals here do sound overly mush-mouthed, and sometimes his consistent intensity can get slightly annoying, but I can live with all that.
After all, there are much bigger problems on “UOAD” besides the vocal issues; after “Everyone hates everyone”, which is only the third track here, the record starts losing its way, trudging through some clunky, messy, “angry” tracks that are overbearing with the way Superjoint tries so hard to convince you they’re super fucken pissed off. Certain songs on “Trendkill” had the issue as well, where the blind, undirected rage buries any coherent, enjoyable songwriting that may have been salvaged out of the overall mess; maybe Phil should think about doing a few anger management techniques before writing? Srsly.
Besides that, I also don’t enjoy the writing schizophrenia here, apparent from some awkward transitions between the fast, aggressive stuff, and slow, draggy, sludgy stuff. I’m sure there’s a way to make both styles work within the same song, and some of the sludgy stuff here does work, but a lot of the time, Superjoint just makes the transitions sound disjointed and random, almost as if they had just copied-and-pasted sections from completely different songs together. Even some of the songs where the style-blending isn’t as prominent still feel confused, overlong, and lost, like the aural equivalent of a round peg in a square hole.
This album was so close to working in the end, since it does have some very satisfying songs/moments, the guitar sound is nice ‘n gnarly, there’s some high-energy percussion work, and it was a fresh new start for an obviously talented (if sometimes obnoxious) frontman. Alas, a lot of that potential is ultimately undermined by such a frustrating lack of a consistent direction, whether due to clumsy style transitions, or to overly forced, brainless displays of “anger”. Fuck me, I really, really wanted to like this more… oh well, maybe we’ll see if they improved with the sophomore effort in some future review of mine. For now, just pick-and-choose the good parts off of “Use once…”, and destroy the rest.
- Information
- Released: 2002
- Label: Sanctuary
- Website: Superjoint Ritual MySpace
- Band
- Phil Anselmo: vocals, guitars
- Jimmy Bower: guitars
- Michael Haaga: bass
- Joe Fazzio: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Oblivious Maximus
- 02. It Takes No Guts
- 03. Everyone Hates Everyone
- 04. The Introvert
- 05. The Alcoholik
- 06. Fuck Your Enemy
- 07. 4 Songs
- 08. Messages
- 09. All Of Our Lives Will Get Tried
- 10. Antifaith
- 11. Ozena
- 12. Drug Your Love
- 13. Haunted Hated
- 14. Stupid, Stupid Man
- 15. Creepy Crawl
- 16. Superjoint Ritual
- 17. Starvation Trip [Demo]
- 18. Little H [Demo]
