Vim Fuego
With top ten chart success and international recognition, `Season For Assault' was always going to be a tough album for 8 Foot Sativa to follow up.
Conventional thinking would indicate the way to emulate that success would be to adhere to the current American trend for metalcore, the accelerated form of nu-metal desperately trying to pass itself off at the real thing, or to follow the Scandinavian passion for melody. In the past, 8 Foot Sativa had skirted the edges of metalcore, particularly in their vocals. The band also travelled to Sweden to record `Breed The Pain'.
So which path to further commercial success did Sativa follow? Neither.
Instead, 8 Foot Sativa did what any good heavy metal band would do- they recorded a heavy metal album, with no concession to commercialism whatsoever. In its first few weeks on sale, the album hit number two on New Zealand's independent sales charts.
Instead of moving toward the mainstream, 8 Foot Sativa has challenged the mainstream to enter their world. The overall sound is not too far removed from modern Scandinavian thrash like The Haunted or Darkane, but still retains plenty of traditional metal elements.
For example, title track "Breed The Pain" kicks in with an introduction which would not have sounded out of place on Kreator's `Coma Of Souls'. Once the main body of the song hits, the distinctive Sativa gallop is still there, but the sometimes patchy vocals have gone.
Matt Sheppard's vocals are a little deeper in the mix than what predecessor Justin Niessen's were, but are infinitely more suited to 8 Foot Sativa's overall sound. Sheppard's style is metal through and through, and he doesn't bother with the hardcore style screams Niessen was fond of. While Niessen attracted a lot of teenage girls to the band because of his looks, Sheppard will draw in metal fans because of his strong voice.
Guitar meister Gary Smith is as prolific as ever in the riff department. Every song features outstanding guitar hooks and fills. The songs are so dense with detail that even after several listens, new passages seem to pop up unexpectedly.
"I Live My Death" has an excellent cascading bass intro, before bursting into a crushing old school thrash style song. While Smith still does a majority of the song writing, this song is bassist Brent Fox's first contribution to the band as a songwriter, and with the addition of Matt Sheppard's song writing skills, the future looks uncompromisingly heavy for 8 Foot Sativa.
`Breed The Pain' is distinctly 21st century metal, but includes enough references to thrash's golden age to satisfy traditional metal fans.