Playlist 2017 Week 4: Locust Grove, Body Count, Hellbound Glory, Alex Williams, White Wizzard

For the fourth week of favorite tunes from 2017, I look at a surprising cover, a repeat offender and a promising start to 2018, among others.


Locust Grove, "Monster" from the Monster EP. One of my favorite finds in recent years, and one of my greatest disappointments when they broke up less than a year after I discovered them was Oklahoma hard rockers Anti-Mortem. Guitarist Zain Smith is back on the hard rock scene now, though, with Locust Grove (where he also handles vocal duties). It's not quite Anti-Mortem, but definitely enjoyable and in the same vein.

Review: Body Count, "Manslaughter"

As its opening song “Talk Shit, Get Shot” would suggest, much of Body Count’s return album Manslaughter revels in gratuitous violence and sex. That’s always been the case for Ice-T’s metal outfit, of course, but most of the band’s early output built that around a framework of social commentary.

A lot of the material on Manslaughter takes that violence and sex to an absurd level, but I have to admit that many of the tunes, like that opening song, are pretty catchy.

If there’s one reason that you should check out this record though, it has to be for their new version of Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized.” Metal fans will be familiar with the original, in which the subject’s concerned parents want to get some help for what they see as his problems. The classic ST song introduced the black humor that has permeated frontman Mike Muir’s work and spawned perhaps the band’s most memorable lyric as Muir calls for a Pepsi.