PATCHWORK

PATCHWORK     “Scars”

By Dr. Abner Mality

Although the location of Wormwood Laboratories must remain a well-kept secret, I admit that my hometown is Rockford, IL, home of CHEAP TRICK, sock monkeys and a lot of screws. Well, it is also the home of PATCHWORK. Will hometown pride influence my review here? Maybe just a little. But I gotta be honest, there have been a lot of bad metal bands from Rockford over the years.

PATCHWORK is not one of them. Apparently they had a debut album “Exit Wounds” out in 2015. Where the hell was I back then? I have to look that up, but I can say with confidence that “Scars” is one hell of a powerful and meaty record. This is a band with potential. They are fast and heavy yet also accessible and able to reach more mainstream listeners. But at its heart, “Scars” is a thrash metal album.

There is something of a divide between “old school” thrash fans into EXODUS, OVERKILL and the like and “modern” thrash bands in the vein of LAMB OF GOD. PATCHWORK is a perfect band to stitch that gap together, because there are great elements of both styles here.  A band that often comes to mind when listening to “Scars” is MACHINE HEAD on their first two, more thrash oriented albums. Heith Gruner’s vocals definitely recall Robb Flynn’s more soulful approach. There’s also a lot of METALLICA in the riffwork here and maybe some of that modern groove of LAMB OF GOD. So you can see that PATCHWORK is well-named but manage to create their own sound.

They’ve assembled a tremendous guest list here. We’ve got appearances by OVERKILL’s first guitarist Bobby Gustafson, former NILE singer Dallas Toler-Wade, Michael Gilbert of FLOTSAM & JETSAM, Kragen Lum of HEATHEN and guitarist Todd Paluzzi formerly of another Rockford band, BEYOND THRESHOLD. Those are some names to conjure with! Most contribute stinging guitar licks, although Dallas lends his growls to “Divide”.

There’s over 50 minutes of hard driving metal here and no really weak songs. “Divide”, “Fallout” and “The Empty” deliver crushing thrash while the excellent “Methuselah”, “Skies In Flames” and “At The End” are more groove oriented but still strong. One of the best tracks is the instrumental “Bitter End”, which really smokes.

Overall, there’s a feeling of honesty on “Scars” that is palpable. There is an edge of pure rock behind the blood and thunder that makes it a bit more approachable. I have to say, this is the strongest release from a Rockford band since they heyday of THE HEAVILS! Look it up!

PATCHWORK