Fallstaf

The similarities between Montreal's Fallstaf and Slipknot are uncanny. Not only is the music similar, but Fallstaf's vocalist, Iann, is a dead ringer for Corey Taylor. They also both have a softer side-project that predate the formation of their heavier counterparts — North East Bistro for the former and Stone Sour for the latter. Both put themselves out there and creatively broke the metal mould by adding atypical instruments, but while Slipknot's beer-kegs-for-drums worked, the trombone on Fallstaf's full-length debut, Bastard Sons of a Pure Breed, occasionally sounds winded. On certain tracks, including "Fuck the Fence" and "The Cost," the brass sticks out like a sore thumb, or middle finger to genre norms. While that may be what they're going for, sometimes it doesn't work. However, no one ever said innovation comes easily and as tracks such as "Eulogy" and "10 Years In Flames" indicate, this might be the album we remember before we forget that brass metal was once just an idea.