Jasta, Jasta
Of the hundreds of bands I covered avidly during seven-plus years as the New Haven Advocate’s local music columnist, I didn’t expect that Jamey’s Jasta would have the longest and most enviable careers. Through his Sabbath-approved band Hatebreed, Jamey’s been an innovator in one of the highest-profile hybrid rock genres of the ’80s, hardcore/metal. He’s been a TV host (of MTV2’s Headbangers Ball), run a label and even created a Hatewear clothing line. Now he’s going the solo album route. I’ve heard two tracks onfit, and in their best moments they bring me all the way back to the roots of Jamey’s surname—his brief stint as baby-faced frontman for New Haven’s highly touted local band Jasta 14, which was plying a singular mix of various hard styles back in the early ‘90s, when such experiments were simply classified as “alt-rock.” Now, lowering the vocal volume and cutting holes in the hardcore wall of sound seems quaint. But Jasta does it well. The Jasta album is also commendable as another chapter in Jamey’s spiritual growth. They’re songs he says (in the YouTube teaser below) wouldn’t fit with Hatebreed or other projects. He’s gone from anthems about Perseverance to more complicated riffs like “Mourn the Illusion” and “Enslaved, Dead or Depraved.”