Supergroups are the latest trend as you know… but surely, this one stand out from the pile for combining a very interesting bunch of American musicians from the past and present, and at the same time, thrash metal with modern rock.
The Damned Things, that actually got their name from “Black Betty” by Ram Jam, are consisted of members from Fall Out Boy , Everytime I Die, as well as Anthrax. In particular, Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley, Keith Buckley, Josh Newton (who only joins the on stage), Scott Ian, and Rob Caggiano joined forces for this brave project, that aimed to bring the all-star musicians closer to their roots, of classic ‘70s hard rock.
The result sounds a bit like Sabbath, Fu Manchu, and whatever heavy groovy riif orientated band you can possibly think of, emphasizing on melody, and pretty close to modern American rock. It’s really interesting to find out how Scott Ian, and Rob Caggiano managed to work together with their younger co-musicians, Trohman and Hurley, from Fall Out Boy, that have nothing to do with thrash metal, or Buckley, from the scream outfit of Everytime I Die. It’s also impressive to notice that none of their “day-job” bands’ style prevailed, or rose above the others. On the contrary, the music on the album maintains equal distance from everyone’s regular bands, while the whole thing stands out for being different to what these guys usually play, and because it’s… damn good!
