Peacedogman.com review of "thirty pieces" 01-26-04 DEVIL TO PAY - "Thirty Pieces of Silver" 2003 (Benchmark) Remember to follow the Peacedogman goat rule when purchasing new titles. It certainly didn't steer me wrong with regard from this, the debut from Indiana's DEVIL TO PAY. That's right...I'm very observant. You see, I spotted those bizarre, goatlike creatures on the back of the CD. You've gotta get up pretty early in the morning to sneak clues like that past the dogman. Now, no rule is hard and fast....not every album with goat artwork is gonna sound like "At War With Satan" or "Show No Mercy" (Check album artwork on those puppies), or the first couple of BATHORY albums, or "Day of Reckoning". Wow, this is kinda fun! Anyway, this time the goats pointed me to an excellent straight-ahead metal album with doom overtones. Vocalist Steve Janiak finds a middle ground singing style somewhere between John Garcia and Alice Cooper, and his voice in a lot of ways is the perfect complement to the high-octane grooves he shares with lead guitarist Rob Secrist. Albums like this are great, because every song is built around a new, killer riff that makes the time just fly by...and it's over before you know it. "Angular Shapes" gets your blood pumping with a great BLIND DOG grrrroove, while "The New Black" alternates between doomy clouds and Les Paul dirt'....creating much of the same dynamics as PENTAGRAM's "Evil Seed". My pick for strongest track would be "Tractor Fuckin' Trailer", primarily for the DOZER groove....and the lyric "she's double axeled - bends all ways". No matter how I try to interpret that lyric, it brings pleasant thoughts, y'know? The bottom line is that this is an excellent debut, and a great collection of riffs and horns (and I don't mean trumpets or clarinets, either).