Stoner metal sure to win you over

Kind of psychedelic, a bit punk and undeniably metal, ASG’s newest album Win Us Over is a… Kind of psychedelic, a bit punk and undeniably metal, ASG’s newest album Win Us Over is a great blend of everything that these genres have to offer. It is grim, hard-hitting, post-grunge experimentalism with an appreciation for catchy songwriting – an enticing mixture of grit and clean sound that spotlights the best qualities of both.

Win Us Over ASG Volcom Entertainment Rocks like: CKY

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Pop in the CD and distortion blasts from your speakers, squealing guitar riffs progressing up and down to the steady background thump of bass and snare. The squeals soon become a messy, sonic slush before suddenly changing into chords to make room for the clear and carrying wail of front man Jason Shi.

After a short vocal delivery, the squealing returns to again mire the listener in grungy murk. A few exchanges of this nature and the brief solo appears, its eerie spectral character suggestive of the grim reaper stalking from gravestone to gravestone in the spooky cemetery across the street. The song ends on the same heavy warped sound with which it began. Its fitting name? “Right Before Death.”

ASG’s capacity to combine grinding grunge with lighter segments is perhaps the band’s best quality, and it’s no small feat that it pulls it off. Mismatching vocal delivery to its accompanying music is often a recipe for disaster, but ASG chooses to enter the coarse arena of grunge rock with almost exclusively smooth vocals and comes out sounding great. Employing a combination of good timing and catchy, supportive riffs, ASG’s music can sustain a wide range of vocal delivery.

This isn’t to say that Shi is afraid to cut loose – he certainly isn’t, he just does it judiciously, balancing harmony and the occasional scream to great effect. Unfortunately, at times his vocals sound a bit overproduced. This is a shame because they sound just fine on their own without the studio tinkering. Backup vocals from other members would have been preferable to the fuzzy overlapping sound that’s occasionally used to create harmony.

Despite this quibble with ASG’s sound, the lyrics are great. Shi possesses an excellent command of language and a political consciousness consistent with the skater-punk rock typeset from which ASG’s previous albums have gleaned much of their exposure. Though it would be grossly inaccurate to describe Win Us Over as simply a punk album, its punk elements and occasional war-focused lyrics do lend it a certain rebellious quality evocative of the genre.

ASG, originally called All Systems Go until its members discovered another band of that name, released its self-titled debut album in 2002, in 2003 released The Amplification of Self Gratification and in 2004 came out with Feeling Good is Good Enough. Formed in North Carolina, the band became synonymous with metallic southern rock and punk when it was featured on MTV show Viva la Bam and in surfing and snowboarding videos. The band features Jason Shi on guitar and vocals, the talented second guitarist Jonah Citty, bassist Andy Ellis and drummer Scott Key.

Win Us Over is fairly diverse, containing tracks like “Dream Song,” which combines scraping and pounding metal with a psychedelic (strongly distorted and howling) chorus, and “Coffee Depression Sunshine,” which would be a gentle cradle-rocking lullaby if the lyrics weren’t so grim – “Bullets that fly by / shot by the gun with no heart / death is endurance / perfectly clean