In the United States, Louisiana is known for giving birth to some pretty big Metal bands. Somewhere out in left field is IWRESTLEDABEARONCE. Since the original lineup formed in 2007, they have consistently put out genre­-bending albums and blown minds across the glob (which is like the globe but different). Their original vocalist Christ Simmons parted ways and filling those shoes with relative ease is Courtney LaPlante whose first recorded album with the band was "Late For Nothing" in 2013. Their latest effort, met with both scorn and praise from Extreme Music outlets throughout the Internet, is "Hail Mary." Despite its name implying some kind of whatever religious crap, it is actually exactly in line with the ranks of other IWABO albums, maintaining some very technical and elaborate sequences complimented by Courtney's very reliable vocals. Let us discuss this phenomenon.

So you are a fan of consistent song structure and musical coherency are you? Then you probably stopped reading this in my last paragraph, because IWABO do whatever the fuck they want, damn your standards and preconceptions of what Metal can be! Granted there are intervals of traditional riffs and "regular" ­sounding instrument techniques employed by the members of this band. There is quite a lot of a wild fret­-tapping style that puts them in a class of their own and enough off­tempo palm muting in drop­Z to piss off MESHUGGAH.

The listen-ability comes from the "keeps­you­guessing" approach to their songwriting.There are occasional breakdowns, so if you like that sort of thing, you will find the ones on "Hail Mary" very unique and dare I say, innovative. So I was never quite sure what to expect, and I was not disappointed by the revelation of listening to the album! To compare it to something, it's like opening up a bunch of gifts every time I played the next song with the sound-wave surprises exploding into my ear canals.

This seems like a good place to leave a sidenote, so I'll leave this here: Courtney's vocals are very demanding and her cleans are very smooth and melodic. Case in point: "That's A Horse Of A Different Color" from their previous album "Late For Nothing" is one of my favorite IWABO songs and a great example of the contrast vocal capabilities she possesses. So there, take that, person who may or may not agree with my statement! But who cares about all of that boring, dusty analysis? "Hail Mary" is certainly something to get the party wondering what the hell the DJ is playing, but at the same time is actually cool, so everyone keeps partying. Although now I don't know why there's suddenly a party. Just go with it, and while you're at it, decide for yourself!