FMEP

Fireball Ministry, who call themselves "the First Church of Rock and Roll," lay down the heaviness of FMEP to prove it. Though fans kneel at the alter of this groove metal, the band sure doesn't hide influences that came before it like Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper. In fact, Fireball Ministry spends a lot of time with covers that pay homage to forebears like Alice Cooper ("Muscle of Love"), Blue Cheer ("Fortunes"), Danzig ("Cough/Cool"), and Aerosmith ("Movin' Out"). But Fireball Ministry has its own sound with fuzzy riffs, bendy guitar solos, and smooth, slightly distorted vocals that place it alongside stoner rock bands like the Queens of the Stone Age and Fu Manchu. Its best original on the record, "Maidens of Venus," with its slow, singing, laid-back vocals, is as catchy as Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun."