Band:	Leather Nun America
Album:	All Your Kin
Style:	Doom metal, Heavy metal
Release date:	December 2006

01. Overdope
02. Horsehair And Red Silk
03. Troglodyte
04. The Hunter
05. Maryland Winter
06. The Onkh
07. Urban Plight
08. Melmoth
09. The Oath

Label: PsycheDOOMelic Records
Website: http://www.psycheDOOMelic.com


Of the latest batch of albums for me to review, Leather Nun appealed to me the least. The rather stupid band name, the generic logo and the very ugly cover art are responsible for the fact that I almost disregarded this album without even listening to it. However, promises made are promises to be kept, so I had to listen to it at least once to be able to review it. And boy, was I mistaken!

From the very first Sabbath-inspired riff -Leather Nun is obviously proud of their influences- and the following "fuck yeah!" they are grooving to the max. Heavy, doom-laden but catchy guitarwork and ditto bass create a great oldschool feeling. The vocals are sometimes very reminiscent of Ozzy, though a little warmer, but with the same "whiney" tone to it that Ozzy often utilized on the Black Sabbath self-titled debut. Actually, pretty much everything on this album breathes Oldschool with a capital "O", from the aforementioned stringwork and vocals to the fuzzy, demo-like production. All of this has of course been done at least a million times before, and the mighty Sabbath have of course done it much better, but that has not prevented me from giving this album a couple of spins. And if you have a bit of cash left, it shouldn't prevent you either. The only downside is that it is a rather short album, as it is but a mere thirty-five minutes, so you should keep that in mind when you come across this is in your cd-store.

So the lesson of today, boys and girls, is that you should never judge a book by its cover. Or rather, in this case, a band by its name or an album by its cover art. Good things may be coming from a place where you least expect them to come from. This time it was San Diego, California.