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House of Broken Promises Put the Useless to Work

Posted in Reviews on September 2nd, 2009 by JJ Koczan

There's the house.At the mountaintop of heavy metal clich?s (and quite a mountain it is) sits the mighty ?Formed from the ashes of.? It is the ultimate, beating out the many variations on ?shred? and any use of ?brutal? you can imagine. Imagine any (every) local band press release: ?Formed from the ashes of Three Bands You Never Heard, New Band X is totally shredding brutal?? and so forth. Happens all the time. So when you see it in the next paragraph, please feel free to wink back.

Formed from the ashes of Unida, Indio, CA, desert trio House of Broken Promises make their debut offering in the meaty riffs of Using the Useless (Small Stone), combining accessibility with desert fuzz and a raucous catchiness. At the helm is righteously-bearded guitarist Arthur Seay, and bassist Eddie Pasciencia‘s vocal delivery reminds of one-time Unida frontman John Garcia but comes on unhinged and confrontational where the former Kyuss/current Hermano singer was more controlled. The commonality is largely in using the gut as the launch point for their voices.

Seay?s guitar sounds downright huge from the start of ?Blister? and remains so for the rest of Using the Useless, but fortunately the bass of Plasciencia and Mike Cancino?s drumming are equally massive, so although the songs are clearly based around the riffs, the rhythm section mounts a considerable presence. Both Seay and Cancino contribute vocals as well. Hand-claps, gang shouts and a low in the mix female orgasm permeate ?Obey the Snake,? in the first demonstration of House of Broken Promises? commercial tendencies, which pop up again later on ?Torn,? where the central riff follows a progression similar to Corrosion of Conformity?s ?Shake Like You? while the vocals take a turn in the direction of Skid Row?s ?18 and Life.? If this song doesn?t end up in a video game somewhere, there?s no justice in the universe.

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