Kill Devil Hill

If you didn't know that Kill Devil Hill featured ex-Pantera/ex-Down bassist Rex Brown, you would wonder how they even made it past the bar-band stage. The group also feature Vinny Appice on drums and Mark Zavon (ex, uh, Ratt and WWIII… hello?) on guitar. Yeah, that's pretty weird, novel even, but then throw in a vocalist who starts off the album sounding all dark and grumpy like Layne Staley (and why the hell does anyone want to sound dark and grumpy like that in 2012?), then does an about-face for "Voodoo Doll," which is the best Mind Funk or Faster Pussycat song you never heard. Elsewhere, "Rise from the Shadows" has a good heavy sludge riff, but it's not all jiving; it's like when you see your buddy's band at the bar and they're aping Pantera, then stripper rock, then they're doing a totally misplaced death metal growl and the audience cheers, but not because it all makes sense, just because it sounds like a cartoon, and they're drunk. In regards to Kill Devil Hill, nothing about this album makes much sense (the best track might be the acoustic "Mysterious Ways"), but maybe it works if you're drunk.