Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band by Beatallica

I wrote about Beatallica before, and have been anxiously awaiting the release of their first album ever since seeing them live in Chicago last spring.   I was able to get my copy yesterday, and encourage you to do the same. The name of the album is Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band and I can guarantee you a good time if you’re a music fan with varied tastes, a sense of humor and an appreciation for good muscianship.

That is what makes me so excited about the album – it isn’t just a novelty band or a big joke: these guys can play.  Play really well.  They are managing to combine the Beatles and Metallica, two bands that many musicians would be nervous to cover straight up, never mind mashing them up to create a new song.  The Beatles wrote incredibly catchy pop and rock songs with amazing melodies; Metallica wrote some of the most fast and complex heavy metal ever written.  Combining the two would seem difficult but the four guys in Beatallica – Jaymz Lennfield, Grg Hammetson, Kliff McBurtney, and Ringo Larz – make it seem easy, and dare I say, perfectly natural.

After just a day, I’m already enjoying the CD as a collection of original music, not as a novelty act that you share with friends and then let collect dust until you uncover it years later and say "what was I thinking!?!?"  This is seriously good music that doesn’t take itself too seriously.