[3/10] Windsor, Ontario quartet LoDown have already toured with Iron Maiden, Foo Fighers and Mastodon, yet you probably haven’t heard of them. And no real surprise there. On Black Horse they’re aiming to channel the anger they have for their hometown with its high levels of unemployment and depression. Listening to a track like “Pucifer,” it’s easy to hear how that environment has fashioned them, you can imagine these guys playing in dive bars, hanging around the same places, seeing the same faces and never achieving anything, caught in a cycle. “I’m so bored/For the love of the money/you dance and you twirl” bellows vocalist Mike Edwards angrily over a mix of Bad Religion and Beatsteaks with a hefty dose of Agnostic Front thrown in there, too. Hatebreed they are not however, so don’t expect any real resolution or positive outcome here. In fact don’t expect much at all.

A completely mish-mash of styles LoDown are jack of all trades and masters of none, so we get some sub-par Tool (“One In A Million”), Deftones and Helmet trying to fit in with the punk mentioned above. Then around the half way mark they delve into the southern rock spectrum (“Seminal”). With their influences thrown so far in front of them LoDown have left no chance of developing a sound of their own. The feel you’ve got after listening to Black Horse is that it’s been put together by a covers band who’re after writing a few originals in the style of their heroes. But even they often fail to miss the mark.

Songs like “Mexican Fireplace” and “Summer Set” make you want to hear something else entirely because it feels like such a waste of time to be listening to them, while the old-school rock vocal on the title track just comes across as false. They’ve tried to craft something here but it’s simply unformed and while these songs may be dear to them it’s impossible to imagine anyone else out there getting any sort of catharsis from them.

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