Vinyl Review: "Wants You Dead" by Junkpile Jimmy

Wants You Dead

Have you ever heard of this place called California?

Apparently over one sixth of the United States's population lives in this elbow shaped land mass on the West Coast. This state abuts the Pacific Ocean and the State of Nevada.

Talk about Scylla and Charybdis am I right?

If you were to ask someone who's not a USA citizen, or someone West of Los Angeles, what the defining feature of California is you'd probably get an answer along the lines of warm sun and Hollywood.

For me, the defining jewel of Cali is the Bay Area, what with the Metallica, the the Janis Joplin, The Winterland, and the eternal fall and all, but I'm slightly odd or I'm going slightly mad...either way.

Back to Hollywood....

Junkpile Jimmy

Hollywood is literally the land of Make Believe. That's the place where motion pictures were born. It's where a desert became a planet were Kirk fought a Gorn to the death. It's were Jay and Silent Bob jumped off of dam and lived.

So, the people there they literally are making everything up as they go along.

That's good because apparently Junkpile Jimmy is a thing. Mr. Jimmy reminds me a young version of myself, though far  more accomplished. I mean, we are talking about his wax and not my failed attempted at being a failed musician.

But, one of the things I wanted to be so badly was a slide guitar player. Because my abilities were so far beyond lacking, on my Gremlin single pick up guitar with the faulty G string slot, I'd play slide through my DOD FX-86 Death Metal Distortion and Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah.

It sounded ridiculous.

Now, stick with me now.

Junkpile Jimmy has apparently mindjacked 19 year old me! The authorities should be called, but unless Jeff Goldblum is involved, it's going nowhere because we're talking Science Fiction. Even though, as Captain Spock says something about crazy things being true and Kirk and McCoy were innocent.

Because Junkpile Jimmy sent me a copy of the record, I won't call the Time Cops. You're welcome, Jimmy.

Now, what if you had an accomplished player trying something new and different rather than some dingbat on a beginner's guitar who doesn't know that a pentatonic scale has five positions? Would you get something worthwhile or would you walk away thinking, wow that was a waste of time?

Now, like most heavy metal subgenres, Death Metal is my favorite and like very few varieties of Blues, Slide Blues is not my favorite. I do dig it, but Chicago blues man...that's the shiz-nyte.

Of course, this is the lazy comparison. There's nothing like slide blues guitar on either side of this record.

Nor is this something like that one slide guitar tune White Zombie did.... It's easy to think of this as a gimmick band, a joke, or even like the Presidents of the United States of America, or the current POTUS...but...

This is a death metal record.

It's a death metal record that solves the biggest problem death metal has had since the rules of the subgenre were established.  That problem is limiting the crayons in the box limits the art. In turn, not only do bands get repetitive, but albums get boring...the same drumbeat all the way through a 45 minute album isn't cool.

So, what would happen if someone didn't paint strictly by the numbers?

Well. Junkpile Jimmy's Wants You Dead... It's difficult to place, like Harry Potter and the sorting hat. It's certainly a death metal record, but even then Jimmy's kind of all over the place.

This album flows between Tampa Bay and English Death metal. It's equal parts Carcass and Morbid Angel. That's a good thing in an of itself, as both of those bands could use a bit of variety in their records.

As a death metal record, what's lacking are the over the top Bill Steer vs Trey Azagthoth solos. There are plenty of sweet guitar licks to go around, but they're used, by metal standards sparingly and way too much by classic rock standards.

What had a hold on my mind the entire time I've been thinking about this record, and certainly on my drive home tonight, is how will the slide guitar affect the death metal sound?

Because as a fan of death metal from a long way back, that's what I was hoping this album would be, not a death blues record, but a bluesy death metal record.

Wants You Dead never is a gimmick album full of oh look here's the slidey guitar bits! There's an effect certainly, but the biggest thing...it adds some groove the riffage. We headbang to death riffs because there's no groove to the vast majority of them.

(Fight me in the comments if you must!)

The slide guitar gives an odd timbre here and there, but unless you've got a keen ear for it, it'll go largely unnoticed as a part of the sound. This isn't a Derek Trucks look at me slide Record...that's for true.

Death Metal riffs flow into the drums, flow into the bass, and fall in line behind the vocals. Whether or not those riffs are played straight in C# or via slide in whatever chord he's tuned to here, death metal is still a team sport.

Now...the harmonica that comes in here and there...that's a little harder to place along the death metal spectrum....

Slide guitar has never sounded so evil and those thundering death metal drums....oh it kind of solves the problem I had as a young rhythm guitarist because the sliding down the strings fills up some space between chord changes.

It's a chainsaw possessed that's trying to escape its operator....maybe it does...maybe it doesn't...but it's a helluva ride.

It'd be wrong to say Junkpile Jimmy Wants You Dead is a no frills package. There's a gatefold, a one page insert, and there are three separate shades of color on the cover. Red, black, and white.

The innersleeve photos, and the back cover photo are all certainly cool as hell.

The dynamic range of the disc itself is exemplary. The press release spoke of how the bass guitar interplays with the six string slide guitar and all that....the weird thing is I could actually hear what they were talking about because the mix, the range, the everything is all first class all the way.

It's always better to have a top notch record than a top notch record jacket.

BANDCAMP