40 Below Summer “Side Show Freaks”

Side Show Freaks was the very first album from 40 Below Summer way back in 1999 but was re-released in July 2008. 40 Below Summer has a predominately aggressive and heavy style with a lot of distorted guitar riffs, heavy power chords and the occasional nu-metal/raprock infusion.

The first track is a good intro song and contains all the elements that 40 Below Summer is known for. 5lb Bag starts out with an almost reggae feel, I may be way off on this but it just reminds me a tiny bit of a mixture of metal meets reggae; that is until you get about half way into the song and it gets good and heavy again.

All About You starts out pretty mellow and picks up into their nu-metal style, with simple and intense music while the lyrics are all over the place, from inhale screeches to melodic whispers and everything in between. Sunburn is one of those songs that you just can’t resist bobbing your head to, tap your toe and kinda shimmy your body a little bit.

When I saw the track Little Lover, I immeadiately thought that maybe it was a cover of the AC/DC track of the same name, but it is pretty far from that. And frankly I’m not so much a fan of this track, I think it’s way outside of thier core style and as much as it’s a slowed down change of pace, it just seems a little too much out of place. Following after Little Lover is Untied which starts out pretty slow, but you can hear that deep bassline in the background which gives the listener the feel that something evil comes this way… but then the evil never comes, instead your taken to a relaxing, quite place; very confused and a little mis-lead. Ah, Disease, there we go! Edgy distortion, screaming, barking, aggression, violence, hooray it’s back! 2 Fisted is great, fast paced, great bass line with a real nice guitar riff and some incredibly fast vocals from Max Illidge, he really is an amazingly talented vocalist. The remaining 4 tracks offer a wider variety of music from 40 Below Summer, a little summertime islander beach jams to pop-metal to deep treck into being rejected to the flesh-ripping Step Into the Sideshow!

All in all this is a really good album, especially since it was the first offering from 40 Below Summer. It was ultra-rare when it was first release but thanks to Driven Music Group (owned by Brian “Head” Welch formerly of Korn), it has been re-released and is well worth the listen.