On the face of it, mixing modern day wannabe outlaw country with brainless nu metal riffage should be the ultimate ‘get in the bin’ scenario; But there’s something irredeemably loveable about Canadian Cory Marks that makes his take on this kinda schtick seem somehow faintly admirable…

This is, in real terms, the ultimate in lowest common denominator entertainment, like AN AI-hatched soundtrack to the biggest Monster Truck night of your life. But Marks has got some pull, and when he enlists names like Travis Tritt, Mick Mars and Sully Erna to back him up on the monstrous (Make My) Country Rock there isn’t really much point resisting.

Whiskey for Sale is probably where the blueprint works best, the country verses smoothly butting up against the stadium metal choruses as if they’ve been doing it for years; And if the whole thing does get a bit much en masse, there’s certainly a good time to be had with judicious use of what we used to call the fast forward button.

Ozzy knob twiddler Kevin Churko brings the metal smarts to the sounds, whilst Andrew Baylis (Brantley Gilbert) takes care of the rest; Between them they’ve left not a stone unturned to deliver the finished product to a glossy, airbrushed sheen. This works particularly well on the Jimmy Buffett tribute Drunk When I’m High, which is as state of the art as it gets, but you do find yourself wishing, just occasionally, for a little dirt under the fingernails, sound wise.

That said, the shiny, chrome-bright Fast As I Can is a real corker, heavily redolent of the early nineties and names like Little Texas and the time when hair metal musicians began to find a safe home in Nashville as the dark clouds of grunge gathered; The sublime 1949 goes even further back for it’s inspiration, but possibly the best indicator of Marks’ ambitions moving forward lies in the choice of bonus track, wherein he tackles the Foo Fighters’ Learn To Fly head on, emerging relatively unscathed thanks to the neat country twist he gives the song.

This isn’t going to appeal to many in the broad church that makes up the Sentinel Daily readership, but it’s worth knowing it’s out there, and, if you’ve ever yearned for a deceased canine chum, or even Fred Durst, then there’s plenty here for you to get your teeth into. A pleasant surprise!

Sorry For Nothing releases on December 6th.