Maylene and the Sons of Disaster

by Stewart Mason Formed by singer Dallas Taylor shortly after he was bounced from the long-running Christian metalcore act Underoath (rumor has it that the rest of the band considered Taylor's marriage proposal to his longtime girlfriend evidence of insufficient devotion to the Rock), Maylene and the Sons of Disaster are something of a stylistic change. Although they share Underoath's hardcore roots, there's an old-school vibe to Maylene and the Sons of Disaster's sound that suggests the generation of 1970s boogie rockers that the punks were supposed to have destroyed. Taylor's throaty bark of a voice is intimately connected to the post-hardcore and screamo scenes, but it meshes with Josh Cornutt and Scott Collum's swaggering guitar riffs and the looser than usual rhythm section of bassist Roman Havaland and drummer Lee Turner to create a mixture of vintage Southern rock boogie and punky aggression that at times sounds like a new-millennium version of Humble Pie or .38 Special. Named after the notorious 1930s bank robber Maylene "Ma" Barker and her murderous sons, whose local criminal reign is now fodder for tourists in Taylor's hometown of Ocala, FL -- a commentary on how even the most violent and amoral acts can eventually become light entertainment -- Taylor formed Maylene and the Sons of Disaster in Birmingham, AL, in 2004; signing with the Christian metal label Mono vs. Stereo, the group released their self-titled debut album the following year. Following a period of personnel uncertainty during which Taylor flirted with joining a new band with some former Underoath members and former From First to Last singer Phil Readon, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster announced that their second album, imaginatively titled Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Vol. 2, was due in the spring of 2007. It then appeared that March.