Garbers Days Revisited

We still need to thank Metallica for Garage Days Revisited, the covers EP that paid homage to their influences while they were having fun. The blueprint has been applied with wildly varying degrees of success by numerous extreme music acts as a stopgap between original recordings. Inter Armas Garbers Days Revisited (titled after the bands rehearsal space while directly referencing the Metallica offering) is their contribution to the shelf. Cut between tour legs supporting 2019s Sulphur English, the band recorded this strictly for fun, and it sounds like it. After their tour, but before announcing this album, Inter Arma issued a quarantine playlist earlier in 2020 that offered original versions of six songs re-created here. Over eight tracks, they pay homage to artists that they revere. Fans will be familiar with the inclusion of Neil Youngs Southern Man. It has been part of the groups set for as long as anyone can remember, so its a wonder it took so long to get it recorded. Its rage, floated on a ton of molten metal, resonates with the poignancy of our current political and social climate. Ministrys Scarecrow is thunderous and foreboding; its laced with feedback and speaker-melting sonic effects, a throbbing drone bass, riotous kick drums, and black metal vocals to ratchet the intensity. The bands wonderfully unhinged reading of the Cro-Mags anthemic Hard Times reveals the original as much indebted to the Misfits, but the hardcore thrash aesthetic is abundant in Inter Armas musical toolbox. Inter Arma read Husker Dus SST-era The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill explosively; they filter the catchy melody through black metal vocals, buoyed by a guitar attack that balances thrash and death metal yet retains the hook. Speaking of black metal, the group also deliver a serviceable take on Venoms In League with Satan. They get the chants down with tongue firmly in cheek, while playing the riff through nasty, fuzzed-out distortion, atop a furious tempo. Tom Pettys Runnin Down a Dream is actually the perfect vehicle for this Virginia outfit. Rooted in melodic hard rock, Inter Arma transpose the songs driving motion through punk-propelled energy and hard-rocking psychedelia in an extended jam complete with guitar orgy. While Princes Purple Rain has been rendered badly by rock stars and garage bands alike (Bruce Springsteens is notoriously limp), Inter Arma offer pathos, commitment, and reverence, along with their trademark musicality in this moving rendition. Sung by drummer T.J. Childers, his raw yet clean vocal squeal is impressive as an empathetic homage to its creator. While covers records are common, the taste, energy, and imagination Inter Arma apply to Garbers Days Revisited is anything but. As a whole, it stands head and shoulders with any recording in their catalog. ~ Thom Jurek