Hell must have frozen over, I have, in my hands a finished copy of Subliminal’s album! For those of you wondering what the big deal is, Subliminal’s ‘Cast The First Stone’ is Moncton’s version of Guns and Roses’ Chinese Democracy. It’s been 8 years since they released their first demo and gladly, unlike Chinese Democracy, it doesn’t suck.

Cast The First Stone sounds really great. While this album is no reinvention of the wheel it’s a very solid, catchy album. A little less Pantera sounding than their first demo, this one is a little more on the stoner side, sounding more like Down mixed with Corrosion of Conformity. On first listen the standout tracks are Dominatrix (which will be stuck in your head after you first hear it), Suicide High and Deliverance while after a few repeat listens The Art of War, Winter Blues and the title track, Cast The First Stone (which will also be a single, release to campus radios soon) stand out as well. I also liked the mix between songs, while each song is pretty straight forward in itself, not really deviating much, the album as a whole has a mix between faster, slower, heavier and mellower songs. I only wished they would have mixed up the track listing a bit as most of the slower songs are near the end while the heavier ones are at the beginning. Lyrically it`s all over the place (in a good way), from songs about lost friends and schoolmates in Suicide High to Art of War that follows a story similar to Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden.

Cast The First Stone is a really great sounding album with no truly bad song, there is no song where I will just skip (except maybe the instrumental, but I tend to find instrumentals boring and this one isn’t the most entertaining one either) and there is something for everyone on this album. This is easily my favourite album of 2010 and will be staying in my car/mp3 player for a long time.

Don’t forget to check Subliminal out on Friday April 30th for the CD Release.

Listen here:
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