Corpus Christi's Switchblade Jesus have been around for more than a decade, and have remained firmly placed in the deep underground of stoner and sludge metal's domains. The band's latest album, Death Hymns, came out late 2020, and it's an unstoppable force.
Prominently written in the trio's DNA are the quality of their unbelievably memorable riffs, the immediate groove, the speed and a type of implacable energy. Jam-packed into a less than half-hour, seven-song total, Switchblade Jesus manage to lay out an assortment of punk, hardcore, doom, thrash, southern rock and Americana attributes which enrich their fuzzy sludge rock, while the conciseness of their composition brings out the incredible riffage even more, and characterizes the band's sound with a sense of directness.
The extreme, yet, focused heaviness of acts like High On Fire, Alabama Thunderpussy and early Mastodon is written all over Death Hymns, with the timeless influence of Motörhead also commenced, however, Switchblade Jesus don't seem to be following the genre's tropes in a completely dependable manner. Instead, they seem more faithful to the rigorousness which their art innately emanates.
One of the album's highlights, Behemoth, is an indeed super heavy cut, impossible to miss, and it even comes with a progressive rock touch, over again proving how much of an exciting listen the Texan trio's heavy rock vision can be.
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