Zimmers Hole
WHILE YOU WERE SHOUTING AT THE DEVIL...WE WERE IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN

July 2008
Released: 2008, Century Media
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Chaosankh

Who knew that extreme metal could be so funny? Apparently the answer to that question is Zimmer’s Hole, a band composed mostly by members of Strapping Young Lad that has been around seemingly forever. WHILE YOU WERE SHOUTING AT THE DEVIL…WE WERE IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN is a furiously heavy send up of some of metal’s most ridiculous conventions. Metal heads take note. Even though, the undercurrent of the album has a strong sense of humor to it, this is some seriously heavy metal.



The title track, with all its obvious nods towards Motley Crüe, is good poke at the silliness of glam “metal” and its “transvestite gods.” The song itself is a pounding, double bass monster, full of fast riffs, and hell screams and demon growls. “We Rule the Fucking Land” feels like a nice slab of U.S. traditional/power metal ala a band like Jag Panzer, which begins to show you one of the best parts of the album, i.e. the innate ability of the band to compose killer cuts that contain a virtual grab bag of metal genres. On “Devil’s Mouth” you get another side of the band, featuring a real groove-oriented riff, almost a nod towards the cosmic doom stylings of Cathedral, or more directly, the bouncier riffs of Tony Iommi. One of the most ridiculously funny moments of the album is the blackened metal monster, “The Vowel Song,” a two minute long track where the vowels of the English language are growled in a most sinister fashion, signaling a tune narrated as “a song to help you read.”



A true head banger from start to finish, WHILE YOU WERE SHOUTING AT THE DEVIL… WE WERE IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN is one of the last year’s most metal moments. There are few frills presented here, choosing to just deliver smashing metal to beat your skull in with. It’s only a matter of time before legions of devoted fans will stand united with these renegades of the true metal spirit to vanquish poseurs wherever they may rear there teased-hair heads. Vince Neil beware!