Eddie Head,Brett Stine: Haji's Kitchen Twenty Twelve mini review

Haji's Kitchen have been around, but not 100% active since 1995, when their début album surfaced I saw it as a reaction to the excessive 1980's metal scene and mirrored the then growing Grungey Nu-Metal bands, like Alice in Chains, but with added guitar solos! Their début disc of 1995 was always a firm favourite with me.

Haji's Kitchen (1995)
Sucker Punch (2001)
Twenty Twelve (2012)

So roll forward to 2012 and the band are back again, with some minor modifications in guitar line up with man of the moment, Daniel Tompkins on vocals (Tesseract, Skyharbor)

Personnel:
Eddie Head - Guitar
Brett Stine - Guitar
Derek Blakley - Bass
Rob Stankiewicz - Drums

Twenty Twelve was recorded over a period of two years from 2010-2012 at Maximedia Studios, rehearsal rooms and various band member home studios. This is very much a labour of love and every effort has been made to get as much energy down into the recordings as possible. The formula is nearly the same, only music is tighter more concentrated, less grungy and to the point... to the point where you know these guys mean business.

Twenty Twelve features the long awaited finished versions of "Lost" and "Day After Day", plus four new vocal tracks and a brand new instrumental song. The disc also includes instrumental versions of the 6 vocal tracks as a bonus... a big plus for instrumental fans like me no doubt :).

Songs are big and metal driven, this is NOT soft pink and fluffy chorus laden rocker stuff. More post nu metal crunch with mind blowing chops and great vocals courtesy of Daniel Tompkins. Guitars, bass and drums work in unison like a well oiled machine. Guitar solos are very high quality and packed with state of the art licks. My favourite track is the interestingly titled Sidhartha, which I assume refers to Siddhartha, a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of an Indian man named Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha. Looking for a ripping metal album... look no further this one is for you.

1. Nocturnus
2. Io
3. Day After Day
4. Lost
5. Notch
6. Define the Lie
7. Warrior
8. Sidhartha
9. Nocturnus (Instrumental Version)
10. Day After Day (Instrumental Version)
11. Lost (Instrumental Version)
12. Notch (Instrumental Version)
13. Define the Lie (Instrumental Version
14. Warrior (Instrumental Version)

This is a labour of love, self financed and every effort has been made to bring quality metal to you at their own expense. So if you want a copy please buy their album: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hajiskitchen3