Black Metal Jacket, Black Metal Mission

Naming your band Black Metal Jacket is a pretty bold statement. Not only are you borrowing from one of the greatest movies ever, you’re implying that your music is some of the most intense metal ever heard. Black Metal Jacket, however, the jokesters they apparently are, sound closer to the Sex Pistols than Xasthur. Well, the irony’s definitely lost on me, and I don’t think I’m alone.

The songs on Black Metal Jacket’s Black Metal Mission run from punk aerobics classes (“Exercise”) to rowdy anthems (“Kill ’em Dead”) with minimalist guitar work (another deception of the band’s name) and singer Clinton doing his best Jello Biafra impression. The one track that does actually live up to the Black Metal name (or something close to it, anyway) is the final track, which, while still overly punk, features speedy riffing and blast beats and plenty of guitar solos. It almost makes up for the rest of the album’s lack of ’em.