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From the darkest corners of Drew Owen's (Sick Thoughts) mind come these 6 tracks of Metal Mayhem. The recording was called forth from the stinking city streets of New Orleans and released as a cassette in the witching hours of 2022 but we knew this rot had to be released on proper vinyl format and we're happily risking damnation to do it.
Fans of Transylvanian Hunger or the 7" period of Midnight will surely be pleased with this festering mess. Metal-Punk with no Motorhead riffing in sight. Just seething, horny darkness.
Our take: Evil Tree is a metal project from Drew Owen of the punk band Sick Thoughts. As anyone who has heard the latest Sick Thoughts album knows, Drew is fucking good at music, and Evil Tree proves he’s just as good with a sleazy metal tune as he is with a middle-fingered drug punk anthem. The label’s description mentions early Midnight, and the vocals here are similar, but rather than Midnight’s Motorhead-isms, this pulls more from the darker corners of metal. Hellhammer is clearly an influence, and a track like “Moon Maniac” is a lot like Darkthrone’s punkier material, right down to the hollow-sounding production. Whereas a band from the metal scene would probably fill out these songs with a lot of boring shit and make it 40 minutes long, Moon Maniac is six songs in 13 minutes, in and out before you can even think about getting bored. If your tastes are wide enough to encompass dirty modern metal and Sick Thoughts, this is a no-brainer, and it’s so action-packed that even those coming from it just from the Drew Owen angle will almost certainly like it too.
Fans of Transylvanian Hunger or the 7" period of Midnight will surely be pleased with this festering mess. Metal-Punk with no Motorhead riffing in sight. Just seething, horny darkness.
Our take: Evil Tree is a metal project from Drew Owen of the punk band Sick Thoughts. As anyone who has heard the latest Sick Thoughts album knows, Drew is fucking good at music, and Evil Tree proves he’s just as good with a sleazy metal tune as he is with a middle-fingered drug punk anthem. The label’s description mentions early Midnight, and the vocals here are similar, but rather than Midnight’s Motorhead-isms, this pulls more from the darker corners of metal. Hellhammer is clearly an influence, and a track like “Moon Maniac” is a lot like Darkthrone’s punkier material, right down to the hollow-sounding production. Whereas a band from the metal scene would probably fill out these songs with a lot of boring shit and make it 40 minutes long, Moon Maniac is six songs in 13 minutes, in and out before you can even think about getting bored. If your tastes are wide enough to encompass dirty modern metal and Sick Thoughts, this is a no-brainer, and it’s so action-packed that even those coming from it just from the Drew Owen angle will almost certainly like it too.