Big Business - Head For The Shallow

Genre rock Publisher Hydra Head Industries External Links Hydra Head Industries

Paying homage to a genre is a hard thing to do well. While respecting your roots, you must find a reason to make people want to care about something which hasn't been relevant for a while. Head For The Shallow is an album which feels pays homage to the heavy metal from the late 70's and early 80's, but Big Business puts a spin on it to drag it into the modern day.

And in some respects, they do an excellent job. The two-man band attempt to obliterate everything which comes their way, and the only weapons at their disposal are a drum set, a bass guitar, and the vocals of Jared Warren and Coady Willis. And while this means there are no guitar solos, that isn't a bad thing at all. In fact, most of these songs are so insanely aggressive that you hardly notice the missing guitar.

A song like "Focus Pocus" is an excellent example of what Big Business does well. Over a disgustingly testosterone-laden bass line, Warren shouts, "Take my advice, don't come any closer!" while Willis plays the drums as if he's getting paid for every hit and cymbal crash. If songs like these don't get your pulse racing a little faster, nothing will.

There are a few fundamental problems here, the biggest of which is that most of the songs are just too damn long. Too often, an impatience for wanting the song to end comes over you. Part of that has to do with the fact that after the 3-minute mark on most songs, it feels like the band is playing simply to keep playing.

The album shows a lot of potential, but tires quickly. If this is Big Business as they "Head For The Shallow," I'd hate to see what happens when they venture off of the deep end.