Country flavored psychobilly that while contains solid songs, doesn’t really push the boundaries at all of the genre resulting in a too familiar feel.
Rating: 
Devil’s Brigade – Self Titled CD
Hellcat Records
Devil’s Brigade is a side project of Matt Freeman of Rancid and features DJ Bonebreak of X playing the drums. This self-titled album is the first album for the band.
The music of Devil’s Brigade is pretty straight-forward psychobilly/rockabilly with some actual country and blues influences sprinkled on top. The songs are mid to fast-tempo with twangy guitars and repetitive drum beats. The music sounds like some sort of cross between Social Distortion and the Necromantix if all of them hung out in country bars. The vocals are gritty, raspy and snarling and have a southern feel to them. The song-writing is pretty solid but Devil’s Brigade don’t really offer up much to separate them from the rest of the pack playing this style of music aside from having a more country and blues influence to some of the songs. It’s a pretty upbeat album for the most part and the punkier numbers are the strongest, but much of it just sounds too familiar.
The album contains twelve tracks and the entire thing clocks in at just under a half hour. Rancid fans who like psychobilly and country/blues influenced rock will likely dig this but fans looking for something that sounds like Matt’s other band or something that pushes the boundaries of the genre may want to look elsewhere.
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