downthesun

Local yokels who've grown tired of bashing Puddle of Mudd finally have a new KC group to despise. Sort of. Bassist Lance "Kuk" Collier and self-described sample operator Church are veterans of the area hard-rock scene, having endured stints in Canvas. Like POM, downthesun is an indistinguishable unit, but this one follows Slipknot's blueprint rather than copying Creed.

Songs such as "Pure American Filth" and "We All Die" imitate Slipknot with slathering precision: Maybe the album should've been called Missouri instead. But there's a good reason for all this: downthesun was "executive produced" by Slipknot's clown-masked drummer, Shawn Crahan. (GGGarth manned the boards on the project, which might make one wonder what role the executive producer actually played other than landing gigs for his buddies.) Tattoo-faced vocalist Satone is a former 'Knot roadie who pinballs off second singer Aaron Peltz in a screeching tag-team grudge match. Perhaps a better band moniker would have been underthesun; this woeful sextet sounds exactly like every other generic, canine-throated act currently circling our little sonic solar system.