The Showdown - "Back Breaker"
Solid State Records - August 19th, 2008

 

01. Titanomachy - The Beginning (2:42)
02. Hephaestus - The Hammer of the Gods (4:18)
03. Aphrodite - The Disillusionaire (4:14)
04. Achilles - The Backbreaker (3:59)
05. Prometheus - The Fires of Deliverance (3:57)
06. Cerberus - The Hellhound Awaits (4:27)
07. Odysseus - A Song of Hope (3:57)
08. Aries - I Am Vengeance (3:26)
09. Infernus - You Will Move (4:00)
10. Nemesis - Give Us This Day [new version] (3:53)
 (previously featured on the 2006 European re-release of
 "A Chorus Of Obliteration" through Century Media Records)
11. Medea - One Foot in Hell (5:12)

Total Playtime: 44:05

 

THE SHOWDOWN - "Back Breaker" - Biography 2008

 

“It’s not all fun and games, being in a band,” The Showdown’s frontman, David Bunton, begins. “When you start touring, there are real problems that you face – personal problems, relationship problems, money problems – and at some point you’ve gotta decide, all right, what are we really committed to here? Are we gonna give in to these outside forces, or are we gonna commit to heavy metal? With this record, there’s no question: We committed to heavy metal.”

“This record” is Back Breaker, The Showdown’s third full-length and Solid State Records debut – and if Bunton’s assessment hasn’t already made it crystal-clear, Back Breaker is also the Nashville, Tennessee, quartet’s metal master stroke – a defining statement that, as Bunton aptly puts it, is “the sum of our band’s raw power, aggression, and total dedication to heavy metal.” Dang straight it is.

Of course, it’s not like the music leading up to Back Breaker was mere prep work. Their initial lineup solidified in 2003, The Showdown came literally roaring out of the gate a year later with A Chorus of Obliteration, a monstrous yet spiritually gripping debut whose death-metal-inspired blast beats, serrated-edge riffs and guttural vocals made its conceptual lyrics (a powerful narrative about personal struggle and triumph based on some of the roughest Old Testament tales) hit that much harder.

Following it up in 2006 with Temptation Come My Way – an ambitious, deeply personal venture nearly two years in the making – The Showdown proved they could hit just as hard through melody. Inspired as much by metal monsters like Pantera, Metallica and Iron Maiden as by the Southern-rock canon on which the band members cut their teeth (complete with cowbell and solos in nearly every tune), the album found The Showdown transcending the typically noisy, atonal expectations of underground metal without sacrificing the heaviness and intensity at their core.

With Back Breaker, however, Bunton and his bandmates – guitarist and chief lyricist Josh Childers, bassist Eric Koruschak, and drummer AJ Barrette (ex-Still Remains) – find themselves standing mightily, heads held high, between their previous extremes. “As proud as I am of our last two records, I can honestly say this one feels like our debut,” says Bunton. “It’s like every lesson we’ve learned, every emotion we’ve felt, every spiritual and personal challenge we’ve tackled to get to this point, is captured 110 percent in these new songs – and man, I can’t tell you how powerful that feels.”

It feels pretty powerful coming out of the speakers, too. As with Back Breaker’s ultra-powerful artwork (from the Grammy-nominated crew at Seattle’s Invisible Creature studio) and lyrics (an epic tale of damnation, retribution and personal triumph sprung from Childers’ long-standing interest in Greek mythology), there’s not an ounce of fat, not a moment of weakness or uncertainty, in these 11 tracks. And with career-defining performances from all involved – a feat Bunton attributes in part to the creative freedom, ear for detail, and innate love for metal producer/Destroy Destroy Destroy guitarist Jeremiah Scott brought to the table – it’s no overstatement to say that The Showdown have made their own Black Album, achieved their own Vulgar Display of Power, with album No. 3.

In an era of cloying MySpace singles and lifeless, audience-tested “focus tracks,” Back Breaker is a bona-fide album, an all-killer, no-filler gut punch that also happens to come straight from the gut. Bunton – already a formidable dude, thanks to a bodybuilding regime that’d make Glenn Danzig look soft – sounds positively titanic when he threatens, in an army-strength multilayered chorus, “I will strike with the vengeance of a thousand hearts / at a world that drew first blood!” (in “Aries - I Am Vengeance”), or issues the call-to-arms, “Rise! / and we will break their backs with the weight of our will!” (in “Achilles - The Backbreaker”). And with Koruschak and Barrette firing like pistons behind him, and Childers alternately shredding, chugging and dive-bombing his way through a destined-to-be classic set of riffs, the effect is undeniable: These aren’t just songs you rock out to; they’re anthems that buffer your very spirit.

Now officially part of the metal-injected Solid State roster (after a 2004-2007 run on Mono vs. Stereo), The Showdown are ready to hit the road like never before. Previous tours have proved the band capable of winning over a wide array of audiences – after all, they’ve played everything from Ozzfest 2007 to the annual Cornerstone Festival, to dates with heavyweights as stylistically varied as Shadows Fall, Flyleaf, Pillar, Project 86 and Chiodos. From the upcoming Solid State Tour (where they’ll join longtime friends Norma Jean) onward, though, they’re ready to aim even wider – and make no mistake: Whether you experience them live, on record, or even at a merch table after the gig, you won’t soon forget The Showdown.

“We’ve never taken for granted how blessed we are to have the chance to do this,” Bunton says, “and that’s something that I think you’ll find to be true no matter whether we’re onstage, backstage or in the studio. With this record especially, that sort of idea comes through loud and clear: We’re not just committed to metal, we’re committed to doing it in a way that means something – and now, more than ever, we’re ready to bring that to the world.”

LINER NOTES:

 

Produced by Jeremiah Scott & The Showdown
Engineered by Jeremiah Scott at Anthem Productions in Nashville, TN
Mixed by J.R. McNeely at Elm South Studios

Drums tracked at Simeon Music Studios in La Vergne, TN
Additional editing by Justin Burns & Chris Dauphin
Mastered by Troy Glessner at Spectre Mastering
Gang Vocals by Josh, Eric, AJ, Jeremiah

Art Direction by Invisible Creature, Inc.
Design by Ryan Clark for Invisible Creature, Inc.
Photography by Jerad Knudson