Review by JD on November 17, 2010.

I love getting a new release from a band I had reviewed beforehand. Seeing if the band had a musical growth or if they ended up being somewhat a complete and utter tragic collapse is pretty much what I live for. S.D.D. is one of those bands that have come around for another time of picking my brain. Lets see if the band swam or sunk like a stone.

I had originally written how amazingly fun this band was. Crossed between old styled Punk Rock like the Dead Kennedys and metal in the vein of Motorhead, they are not what you would call a technical sort of band, but they great at what they do. Passion added in with a good amount of fun make a band just plainly enjoyable. Plainly put this band really does show that you don’t have to be axe-slinger gods to make some great music. Now as the two song CD single plays in the machine... the proof is in the pudding, but the pudding is spoiled.

The track called 'Atheist' starts off, a raucous sort of riff, that is not very original. It is catchy for a moment or two, but it lacks the spark they had on their previous release and becomes boring real fast. 'Hangman Blues' is a good song, but hardly ualifying as their best. It seemed that instead of going forward, they kind of lost both their way and fun. Gone is the old school
Punk and Motorhead things... now it is just bad Punk.

Hope the rest of the album when it comes out is way fucking better. If this is any indication, it will not be good. And for my original question... the answer is- they sank like a stone and drowned here, deciding not to swim a stroke. Sad!. On their first release that I had the pleasure of reviewing, they were amazing and fun, but not here. S.D.D. have turned into a band I do not want to hear anymore.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship:6
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 7
Originality: 4
Overall: 5

Rating: 5.4 out of 10

Review by Krys on May 28, 2002.

Honestly, the first time I gave “Binge and Purge” a spin it didn’t do much for me but I guess it had something special after all because somehow it made its way back into the player and actually stayed there for a while. Now, after few good sessions I have to say this album has to be one of the most interesting hard rock releases I’ve heard since early 90s.

Torok’s fusion of rock genres from the 70s to the 90s is amazing; the band mixes styles from greats like Kiss, Ted Nugent, and early Iron Maiden through Skid Row to blues guitar touches from Vaughn to Clapton. Recorded with a raw sound and atmosphere of earlier rock days it reminded me of flower power concerts and loudmouthed potato-sack wearing hippies. These 11 tracks were made for you to listen to while you lie on the ground and smoke a fat pipe. What else could come from a bunch of guys that thank Playboy and motorcycles for gratuitous inspiration?

Ex-Impaler guitarist Michael Torok feeds this music with his excellent guitar skills and his amazing blues/rock touch, and while most rock bands turn me off with cheesy vocals, Bryan Erickson is one of the strongest points of this band. From clean vocals to tearing screams his performance is simply excellent. But not everything is excellent here; most tracks are very good tunes but some of them seem to lose direction and at the end make an impression of nothing more than a jam session. What might have been an intentional move by Torok’s musicians didn’t have the desired effect on me and actually broke my attention and sometimes even bored me. Overall “Binge And Purge” is a very good debut and with few tweaks and bigger production budget a break through moment is well within Torok’s reach.

Bottom Line: Recommended for anyone hungry for pure hard rock based on good songwriting and even better delivery.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 7
Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 7
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.6 out of 10