Published on Dec 4, 2001
I don’t know why I’m surprised, but some of the heaviest music
these days comes from places you wouldn’t expect it to. Slipknot
came from Iowa – which we all know is a hotbed of thrash metal.
Now, Drill 187 comes storming out of North Carolina with a groove
that could eventually give some mainstream groups like Godsmack a
serious run for their money. Yet their five-song eponymous EP
leaves me wanting a little more proof that the band is able to
deliver the goods in the long run.
The band – vocalist Jason Lilley, guitarist Jason Ussery,
bassist Chris Boyle and drummer Bobby Stansbury – have obviously
paid attention to their lessons in hard rock, as they have the
instrumental crunch down well. (Side note: Boyle and Stansbury have
since left the band.) There is a freshness to Drill 187’s sound
that keeps the listener on their toes, yet there’s also a level of
familiarity about this music, so even if it’s your first time
slapping the disc in the player, part of it will feel like you’ve
had this in your collection for years.
That said,
Drill 187 shows that the band is still in the learning
process, though this disc is hardly a failure. Tracks like “Divine”
and “Mankind” suggest a lot of promise for the group, yet they’re
still trying to find the right balance in their songwriting that
will kick their work into the next level. Whether it’s the type of
instrumentation (e.g., double bass work, particular chord
structure), balancing vocals with solos or even further development
of Lilley’s vocals, these five tracks show that Drill 187 is a very
mature band but they haven’t quite reached perfection.
Maybe hearing more than about 22 minutes’ worth of music would
have helped. Granted, the group probably wanted to draw attention
to the best songs in their repertoire, and I respect that. But
trying to pass a verdict on a group based on only five selections
leaves them in an unfair situation. Who’s to say that ten songs
would have helped to cement their name in the “bands to watch”
category? Fact is, unless one has seen the band live (which I have
not – lousy recession), these songs are all you have to judge the
band on.
My judgment is simple: I do like what I hear, but I want to hear
more before I’m ready to declare them to be something special.
Drill 187 is an interesting primer to this foursome, and
with a little more development as a band (which may have already
happened, seeing this disc was released in 1999), they could become
a standard name in the hard rock category.