Review by JD on January 16, 2012.

Instrumental albums are at its basic nature a crap-shoot at best. These type of albums can be musically gifted and that it showcases a band/artist has complete mastery, or more boring as waiting to see if grass grows in the Antarctic. I own albums that are on both sides of this musical coin, and hear I am going to do a review of one such act.

North Carolina based Loincloth was spawned when a band called CONFESSOR had broken up, and its drummer Steve Shelton and Bassist Cory Rowells decided to create some music that was a little different than what they have been doing. Going instrumental, as they did, showed that they never stopped their love of metal, which I am grateful for. Heavy and yet progressive.

With sixteen impressive tracks ranging in length from a minute and twenty seven seconds to just over five full minutes - you get your moneys worth out of the CD in pure music. Tracks like the nasty riffing of 'Hoof Hearted' to the slower yet effective 'Angel Bait', this band shows you can thrash hard, and yet have a progressive side that makes Dream Theatre jealous. Power and talent, they just might take over the world.

The proof is right here. Metal can be brutal, inventive, creative, nasty heavy and fully instrumental while being just plainly damned good. If you want something like that to assault yourself with, Loincloth is the band you need to have. Brutality never needed words, I always knew that much - and it is this album proves that without even trying.

Now I pop open a cold one and sit back, I gotta listen to this album again. Just buy it and see for yourselves.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9.5
Atmosphere: 9.5
Production: 9
Originality: 8
Overall: 9.5

Rating: 9.1 out of 10