Available from August 23rd, is the new Voodoo Johnson album, '10,000 Horses'. So as it lands on my doorstep ready for a review, I guess it is down to me to spread the word of this release by the Birmingham-based quintet.

Crunching metal riffs recall the days of when Ugly Kid Joe and Faith No More informed me I should be wearing big shorts, and looking down right now I guess those days have never really left me. So I'm enjoying this introduction to the album with the punchy opener 'Headstone'. However, in true modern metal style, just as we're rocking out they bring out the slow epic section which leads us into an extensive fade out.

Running counter to the end of the opener however, I am glad to say '10,000 Horses' abounds with cracking riffs that bring the best out of the danceable rhythms. Vocalist Kev Bayliss has a definite Mike Patton style which is a relief from the constant scream-whine-scream coma-inducing bullshit pumped out by one average metal band after another.

Although they do sometimes fall into the trap of the slowed down mid-sections they pull it off most successfully on tracks such as 'Feel Karma'. This mixture of dynamics obviously lends itself to the odd slow song, which they produce with competence on 'End Of The Empire', 'Sleepwalker', and 'Rain'. For me though they are at their best with arse-kickers such as 'Sin' and 'You Will Never Know'.

Danceable and powerful, the American sounding Voodoo Johnson have a lot going for them. Mixed in with the metal and grunge of the 90s is a dashing of a more modern approach tangled somewhere between Tool and Queens of the Stone Age. '10,000 Horses' mixes all of these influences perfectly..

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