This post comes nearly 10 years late, but that hasn’t stopped me from promoting a great album before. I guess you’d call Double Drive post-grunge, but it just seems like rock to me. Double Drive has been part of my collection since early high school, but for some reason they never made it big over the years. Although, most of its members have continued their musical career path in one way or another; particularly with bands they had toured with. I don’t know if they ever got any radio play, but perhaps you caught them touring with bands such as Sevendust, Queensryche, Megadeth, and others.

Their debut album, 1000 Yard Stare (1999), is strong all the way through. Double Drive doesn’t fit my typical tastes tending towards unorthodox song structures and odd-meter rhythms. This is just straight-up rock. Double Drive sports a heavy guitar, actual singing (very minimal screaming), and a strong, supporting rhythm section. Each song is well crafted, but still tends toward the usual song structure… with a couple exceptions. Vamp starts out really mello but builds pretty quickly almost out of nowhere. Hell is another track that sticks out. I wouldn’t say it’s a “happy” song, but it doesn’t beat you with a sack of oranges you might expect from a dark hard rock song… especially with a name like Hell. I like the distinction the guitar takes between verse and chorus as well as the slick use of dissonance. Tattooed Bruise is another notable track with significantly more energy than most of the other album. Come to think of it, I could easily single out the uniqueness of each track. I think that’s what makes this album as good as it is, you’ll never think you heard a track earlier in the album.

All four members of this band are solid musicians, it’s a shame they only released two albums together. It seems their singer has been working with Sevendust on a DVD project, their guitarist is a guitarist for Dark New Day and Seether, and their drummer supposedly did some work with Queensryche’s most recent singer. Chances are you’ve heard of these bands, but not likely Double Drive. I think the only reason I knew them was because they’re local to Atlanta and I’ve got a couple uncles with good taste in music not all that far from there. I just recently noticed they even had a second album, but I haven’t been able to give it a real listen. Until then, I strongly support getting 1000 Yard Stare.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.