Tallboy Shotgun - Tallboy Shotgun

*=Staff's pick	Chasing My Ghost Buried Underneath Blindfolds* Sands Of Time

Genre	Thrash Metal	Jon Kindsvogel	Vocals
Tracks	4	Adam Smith	Guitar
Runningtime	16 Min.	-	Guitar
Label		Wade Nelson	Bass
Release	28 Jan. 2005	Austin Smith	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Pantera, Slipknot

There is more to Vancouver than the Canucks obviously, and here you have the four-piece thrash outfit Tallboy Shotgun. The band started in 1998 and by 2002 the setting was completed, and come 2005 their self-titled, self-produced demo was out. The band gather their influences from bands like Pantera and Slipknot to Testament and Slayer, even if it the influences from the two first that feel to be the strongest.

It is aggressive and noisy thrash that Tallboy Shotgun play and it comes with a heavy groove. They mention Pantera as one of their influences and when the thrash riffing goes in that vein I doubt that any other band has been as big inspiration as they have been. In Chasing My Ghost the vocals seem to be inspired by Phil Anselmo with the same screams performed by Jon Kindsvogel. Further, there is a hardcore vibe in Tallboy Shotgun and a bit of Slipknot as well, with attempts of mixing clear melodic vocal parts with more aggressive ones.

Their songs tend to be a bit chaotic and unstructured and if I had anything to say about it, it would be to turn down on the aggression and work more with melodies and the vocals. The clean vocals sound a bit uneven but the more aggressive ones seem like an unpolished diamond, it sounds a little rough around the edges but it works. On the positive side the guys show that they can handle their instruments and play songs that are not only straight forward. They also show a more complex side of their song-writing skills considering breaks and tempo-shifts, even if Adam Smith on guitars tries a bit too much to sound as Dimebag.

Tallboy Shotgun has the sound of a garage-band on this demo but with a professional producer and studio, I think this can actually be something. Although the main focus of the band is to deliver high-energy live performances, and there is energy in their music so this band might be really good live and if the chance is given, check them out.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
4	5	6

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Thomas