Me And That ManNew Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol 1

The TELevangelist Jimmy Swaggert once preached that rock n’ roll is the Devil’s music.

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Heavy metal has been denounced as Satanic since Black Sabbath reared their heads from the industrial clatter of Birmingham. But it was the great bluesman Robert Johnson who sold his soul to the Devil in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the 1930s, and rock n roll and heavy metal are just the unholy incestuous spawn of the blues and its country music cousin.

Nergal has walked the dark side since his earliest musical endeavours, so it’s little wonder he turned to the blues on Me and That Man’s first album. On this second album, he is joined by a collection of like-minded souls from the various realms of metal in his ever-expanding exploration of the left hand path, adding their vocal talents to this collection of earthy blues, outlaw country and hillbilly songs. 

We are passing through dark times. Me and That Man have provided the soundtrack.

Me and That Man has cast the net wide, dragging in everyone from Corey Taylor and Matt Heafy to eminent underground names like Jorgen Munkeby from the Swedish Shining, and Nilas Kvarforth from the Norwegian band also called Shining. It’s Munkeby we hear from first, adding his personal touch to a rocking piece of Americana; Mat McNerney from Grave Pleasures goes full-on Nick Cave in Burning Churches with ample support from a rollicking Bad Seeds-like singalong. That demented folky blues vibe permeates through the next few tracks, including the Ihsahn-voiced By the River; further on, Deep Down South takes a trip into hillbilly country before Jerome Reuter stamps his authority on the proceedings with album highlight Man of the Cross. For their part, Heafy sounds out of his depth even if it’s refreshing to hear him trying something way out of his comfort zone, but Taylor accredits himself well.

The spirit of Nick Cave returns for the final track, a dark, creeping country song featuring Kvarforth in a truly sinister performance as Confession builds suddenly into a swirling black metal nightmare like a premonition of something far more evil to come. We are passing through dark times. Me and That Man have provided the soundtrack.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Confession, Man of the Cross, Burning Churches
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tom Waits