Hank 3's 3 Bar Ranch
Cattle Callin
Release Date: Sep 6, 2011
Genre(s): Alt-Country, Pop/Rock, Heavy Metal, Speed/Thrash Metal
Record label: Hank3
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Album Review: Cattle Callin by Hank 3's 3 Bar Ranch
Mediocre, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
Never let it be said that Hank Williams III hasn't brought something new and different to the world of heavy metal. Danny Barnes of the Bad Livers once opined that a really fast speed metal tune was roughly the same tempo as an ordinary bluegrass breakdown, and Hank3 seems to have reached a similar corollary regarding the verbal speed of punk rock howlers like H.R. of the Bad Brains or Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks, and the syllable-crushing skills of a good auctioneer.
Based on rating 4/10
Hank3 summed up his new 40-plus song collection by saying, “I don’t like being told what to do, and I don’t need to be told what my record should sound like. I’ve got that covered.” You can rest assured that this is a true statement. Hank3 remains a potent antidote to the Kid Rocks of the world. After being dropped by Curb Records, he launched his own label, then (a few months later) released four albums-worth of material on the same day.
Based on rating 1.5/5
The pugnacious country-music scion once known as Hank Williams III has four separate albums in stores this fall, including a relatively traditional roots effort that might please fans of his dad’s or his grandfather’s. Cattle Callin is a more polarizing beast, with frantic speed-metal licks serving as musical accompaniment to—oh yes, ya’ll—field recordings of real-life cattle auctioneers. The result certainly stays true to Hank3’s legacy of audacity, especially in “Mad Cow,” which drones on for 10 minutes.
Based on rating 0.5/5
It may have seemed impressive back in the summer when Hank Williams III announced that he would be releasing four albums on one day, but the disparate quality of those four albums greatly diminishes his accomplishment. While his Hellbilly double album, Ghost to a Ghost/Gutter Town, is brilliant and fearless, his doom-rock album, Attention Deficit Domination, is a middling effort that veers toward camp. And then there’s Cattle Callin, an album of ostensible speed metal paired with samples of cattle auctioneers’ voices.
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