LA four-piece ALL HAIL THE YETI have been making a name for themselves this past year. A couple of high profile support slots raised interest in them before their excellent second album 'Screams From A Black Wilderness' picked up some rave reviews (including a massive 9/10 from this very website). Prior to its release, their label decided to generate some buzz by reissuing their little-known debut, a self-titled effort that was released independently four years ago. It was almost completely ignored at the time but is it any good? Well, yeah. It's okay. There's a few good tracks on here but it's not the precision engineering of their latest effort by any means. It's a lot rougher round the edges and there's a few underwhelming moments but it's a decent enough curio for anyone that's new to the band and wants to check out their formative years. Some of the songs still show up on their live sets so it's worth checking out to familiarise yourself with them, but 'Screams...' is definitely the first port of call.

It all starts impressively enough with 'Deep Creek,' the story of a bunch of guys being chased through the American backwoods by an unspeakable monster. It's a memorable opener that mixes elements of Southern Rock, Stoner and Groove Metal into an almighty sledgehammer of noise. This isn't the only decent entry either as 'Suicide Woods,' 'Blood Guilt' and 'Axe Murder Hollow' are all cool songs, each a high octane burst of swampy, blues laden metal. They're dirty and unrefined rockers, the kind of blood-drenched metal you encounter in the back roads of America after making the terrible mistake of taking a short cut off the highway. However, there's also a few duds. The spoken word parts of 'When The Sky Falls' for example are jarring and off-putting, while 'After The Great Fire' is a momentum killer. It's a slower number with singer Connor Garritty doing a dead-on impression of a wasted Zakk Wylde in the middle, but it never quite gels and sadly isn't very good.

It is a shame because when ALL HAIL THE YETI are good, they're great. 'I Am Wendigod' and the closing 'Judas Cradle' are both excellent, but when they have underperforming songs like 'Ruby Ridge' next to them it affects the whole experience. If you absolutely loved 'Screams From A Black Wilderness' and want to complete the set it's worth a purchase, but this is one case where the sequel far surpasses the original. God damn, 'Deep Creek' is awesome though.

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