All Hail The Yeti
Highway Crosses
Minus Head Records
4/5
I haven’t heard anything from these guys since their self-titled debut album which I covered a great number years ago, either for this site or another – I’m not really sure. In any case, I had no idea that these Los Angeles sludge-metal influenced hard-rockers would not only have completed another record, but would already be on their third outing in preparation for a major tour. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the first listen either, but I found myself turning up my MP3 player far beyond the threshold of safe-listening within a matter of minutes. The Grim Lord has always loved his grooves and this album is chock-full of them. I’m reminded a bit of HellYeah in that instance, but there’s more substance here than I’ve gotten from the last four Hellyeah records. I also noticed that the harsh vocals here seem to remind me a great deal of Chad Grey (ex-Mudvayne/Hellyeah) and that the record managed to serve a much tastier meal than what even the rest of Mudvayne threw out this year (I’m talking about the new Audiotopsy album The Real Now, which I found to be equivalent to eating lettuce) so that’s saying something. I was seriously impressed with this one and I cannot stress that enough.
For those of you looking for extreme technical brutality; that’s not the name of the game here – and I find my interest in this kind of metal to be an artifact of my teenage years that seems to be pulling even stronger in my thirties. But if you’re looking a record with choral hooks that hit as hard as it’s right hooks, then that’s what you’re getting with Highway Crosses. In fact, I was so taken by this record that I immediately caught myself up on the band’s previous album Screams From A Black Wilderness, which also appealed to me, not surprisingly; at this point. You may as well call me an All Hail The Yeti fan.
The first half of Highway Crosses is literally hit after hit. Though the formula is mainly situated around downtuned-riffs and harsh vocals with nearly every single cut offering a clean choruses, it has all ben done to perfection. “Live Everyday”, See You Never”, the title cut and massive single “Slow Season” are all wonderful sing-alongs and I think I’ve jammed them about three or four times in just the past couple of hours, because I just can’t seem to get tired of them. And then after you’re done listening, the earworms find a way to lodge into your brain as they beg you to go back and listen to Highway Crosses again. It’s no surprise that these guys are going on a massive tour, because the work and effort put into getting these pieces absolutely right has paid off for them ten-fold.
As the album continues, we’re left with even stronger cuts like “Felo De Se” which is begging for a single. It’s very much in the same vein as “Slow Season” and I’m rather perplexed as to why they didn’t take advantage of it’s catchy pop-nature. The radio would have played the shit out of it, no question. If Minus Head Records and All Hail The Yeti fail to make this one a single, it would be a terrible business move. “Withdrawal Delerium” comes in with a less apparent hook, along with “Seymour Avenue” and album closer “Nuclear Dust.” This section of the album is where the right hook comes in that I mentioned earlier. Harsh vocals rule the day at this point, assuring fans that All Hail The Yeti haven’t exactly thrown themselves to the pop music wolves of the industry. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Highway Crosses is still a heavy album. It just doesn’t start out that way. If you’re in doubt, then single “Nuclear Dust” should be more than enough to drive that point home. I do have one qualm regarding “Nuclear Dust” however and that involves the ending to the song. This might be considered a slight nitpick, but I feel that it is a fair opinion. For those who’ve heard it, you’ll notice that the shouts of “nuclear dust!” are quite a large part of the hook here and surprisingly, the song itself does not end with one massive shout of “nuclear dust!” Look folks, when I was listening to the cut, I actually ended up shouting that line myself only to realize that the band wasn’t doing it. This would have been such a great ending moment for the disc, but since that final shout was left off, I’ll have to fill it in myself whenever I listen to the song and that’s unfortunate.
I also have to say that I didn’t find much substance in “Necktie Party” and it has simply went in one ear and gone out the other, no matter how many times I’ve listened to it. There’s just not much of an impact there for me. Though I will note that I was extremely pleased with “Anti-Social Media” and the very fact that the band used the line “Social Justice Warriors” in the song. Disturbed tried this on Evolution in one of the lines from “Savior Of Nothing” but they didn’t actually use the term “social justice” before they’d used the term warriors. Even so, I still got the meaning and I’m glad that bands are actually calling out these purveyors of mass censorship and products of social engineering out on some of their many internet antics. Social media really has become a battleground as of recent, and I feel that this is being expressed in a lot of artwork. Perhaps it isn’t the digital revolution that we all expected it to be.
When all is said and done, the overall result achieved by All Hail The Yeti is one of proficiency and Highway Crosses features the best of both worlds, making it not only accessible, but a far more interesting choice than that of groove mainstays Five Finger Death Punch who have long since gone out of style as far as I’m concerned. The disc is certainly filthy and contains plenty of punch, but it is also a bit more intelligent and fully realized than the majority of “bro-metal” that these guys might get lumped into. While not exactly perfect, it is definitely one of my favorite modern/groove metal discs of the year and many of these earworms will be thrown onto my personal playlist for decades to come. I greatly enjoyed Highway Crosses and will argue that you won’t be able to listen to it just once!