Take a Look

For those who remember Karl Agell and Phil Swisher from Corrosion of Conformity (COC), one cannot stress enough that COC and Leadfoot are two very different bands. You won't find a trace of thrash metal or hardcore punk on Take a Look, Leadfoot's second album, nor will you find a heavy sociopolitical agenda. What you will find are a lot of slow, gritty hard rock grooves with Southern leanings — when the Raleigh, NC-based band rips into Southern-fried numbers like "Blowhole," "Unkind" and the single "Redline," it's obvious that singer Agell and bassist Swisher have long since left COC in the past. Some of the grooves illustrate Leadfoot's appreciation of ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Leadfoot's Internet website celebrated the Southern connection by exalting the band's previous album, Bring It On, as a "redneck masterpiece." While using a word as strong as "masterpiece" to describe Leadfoot's material is going overboard, Take a Look is solid, enjoyable and certainly rockin'.