Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster preview

Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster, Every Time I Die
Riviera, Chicago
Friday, October 19, 2007

Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster frontman Dallas Taylor used to hold down the same job for Underoath before leaving the group and forming Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster. Logic might say this was a bad move. Underoath is, after all, at the very top of this tour while Maylene opens every night, probably to half the audience. We back Taylor’s decision (or the decision made for him?), though, because Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster are pretty kick-ass, and Underoath kinda suck.

There doesn’t seem to be any bad blood between Taylor and his old bandmates. They are touring together, after all, and each has the other included in their Myspace “Top Friends,” which certainly can’t be understated, right? But Taylor should be content to no longer be the mouthpiece for Underoath and their bible-thumping metalcore. He may still consider them bros, but Maylene is hands down the best band on this bill, and their most recent record, II (Ferret) deserves consideration on any year-end hard rock/metal best-of list. A concept record about real-life, prohibition-era crime kingpin Ma Barker and her gang of sons is a surprisingly natural mix of Southern boogie (the boys hail from Alabama), riff-driven hard rock, and unrelenting hardcore (Taylor still hasn’t returned the growl of his old band). Fans of Down or Corrosion Of Conformity will eat this shit up, unfortunately they likely haven’t heard much of the band as Taylor’s Christcore background means Maylene is too often buried in crappy lineups.

We would probably recommend jetting right after Maylene’s opening set and getting home in time for “Deal Or No Deal” if it weren’t for Every Time I Die, one of the few bands able to dump their metalcore beginning for something more interesting. The Big Dirty, which came out via Ferret in September, still packs enough hardcore punch for O.G. fans, but guitarists Jordan Buckley and Andy Williams have become much more flexible with their attacks, focusing less on stiff-armed riffs and breakdowns and more on slippery, drunken rock ‘n’ roll – not so unlike The Bronx.

Poison The Well also play.

– Trevor Fisher

Click here to download Every Time I Die’s “Jimmy Tango’s Method.”

Click here to listen to streaming samples of Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly