Tag Archives: Southern Rock

Rubikon – Delta

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Rubikon - Delta - Album cover 2015

Every once in a while it is always nice to get a break from the heaviest of heavy music to just enjoy some nice hard rock for cruising in the summer time. Rubikon has created an album perfect for such a scenario in Delta (Round Hill Records). The Boston-based group does a pretty good job with mixing influences from the blues realm and the southern style metal world. Like some cheeses, Delta gets better with age as I found myself enjoying this album a bit more with each listen. Each track carries its own characteristics and overall feel that allows the entire album to feel fresh track by track. Of course the one down side to this as a writer is trying to determine which songs are on the list of favorites when each song is vastly different from the previous.

Right off the bat, ‘Live That Lie’ hits you with everything Rubikon is made of. The guitar work is catchy, bass can actually be heard and grooves well, and the vocals are certainly at sing-a-long status being memorable and fun. There are also a few keyboard passages, typically in the chorus, that help glue all of the parts together. ‘Swingers’ provides one of the more bluesy tracks from Delta and may or may not be about going to swinger parties. The track is slow, heavy, guitars utilize slide to add that southern “twang” for lack of a better term, and even includes the use of a harmonica solo towards the end which puts the icing on the cake. ‘Wasting Time’ is a ride of a track that starts off like an acoustic campfire song and escalates into a heavy outro. The overall groove of this song kept my head bobbing around to the bass but then started banging right as the distortion hit at the end.

While my first few plays through Delta did not overly impress me, it did end up growing on me after a few more tries. The overall laid back feel that Rubikon delivers through this album is the biggest upside for me which not many, if any, heavier bands are able to provide nowadays. If you are having a pool party or cook out in this second half of the summer, press play on this album, crack open a nice cold one, and enjoy before the winter returns.

7.0/10

TIM LEDIN

 


King Giant – Black Ocean Waves

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Sometimes the epithet ‘Southern’ can make one shudder in fear rather than delight, with stodgy ‘Dad Rock’ often found invading its borders. There’s no such danger here… from the off Black Ocean Waves (Graveyard Hill Records), the third album from Virginian old-timers King Giant, displays a brooding intensity: the rumbling bass notes and lead howls of opener ‘Mal de Mer’ invoking feelings of both melancholy and trepidation. The roaring riffs of ‘The One That God Forgot to Save’ carry more of a barrelling stomp than a latent groove, whilst the overall feel possesses some of the Stoner / Grunge of Gorse with Dave Hammerly’s vocal reminiscent of the Brighton trio’s James Parker.

There’s a sleazy, nefarious quality here which prevents the album’s early stages from diving into flabby mundanity. Todd “TI” Ingram’s leadwork is often understated yet enlivening when it appears, evoking The Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’ when splitting ‘Requiem For A Drunkard’s raunchier elements. It gives the lament of ‘Red Skies’ an indolent, Eastern quality, while Hammerly’s plaintive roar portrays guilt and shame with real passion; the whole swaddled within intricate rhythmic patterns and fluid time switches.

There’s nothing new here of course, and the younger metalhead may doubtless find this lacks his or her required energy levels. Rarely, however, does this kind of stuff possess the sort of up tempo, pulsing vibe that King Giant produce with seeming ease; the rampaging yet tempered heavy rock of ‘Trail Of Thorns’, for example, displaying the vitality of The Doors’ later, heavier moments, albeit without the quirky invention. Creativity is here though – the angry roars and swells of ‘Blood Of The Lamb’ are occasionally quelled by a softer texture; a constant duel which heightens the emotion and piques the curiosity further with a dreamy, truly moving Ingram solo. The crushing oscillations of closer ‘There Were Bells’, meanwhile, mix with lamenting yet euphoric verses in an elephantine take on Pearl Jam.

All sounds the old man might like? Sure. Black Ocean Waves, though, gives them a serious injection of power and fervour which lifts King Giant way above the often bloated fayre of their genre.

 

7.0/10

 PAUL QUINN


Download Festival: Day Three – Castle Donington, UK

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Download lineup

The final day of a festival is often filled with many emotions: a wonderful weekend sadly coming to an end; another day spent celebrating brilliant innovative and life affirming music; hours spent trying to dry your tent out… So it again proved with Sunday at Download.

Leaden skies greet the hordes either nursing hangovers of epic proportions or gathering their belongings for the trudge back to cars and the dreaded long trip home. It’s cold on the field so a bit of warming up is required. Bacon rolls and coffee do part of the job but Dead Daisies do the rest in a punchy late morning slot that has a much bigger crowd than perhaps even they were expecting. Dead Daisies inhabit that strange world where it is perpetually 1986, eternally sun-soaked California and every band is the last gang in town, riding steel horses into sunsets or the arms of star crossed maidens. As you have probably guessed, I thought it was terrific and an object lesson in how to warm up a crowd.

Sweden’s h.e.a.t. have gathered plenty of plaudits for their two albums of 80’s inspired rock and from this performance it’s easy to see why – they are pumped full of energy and chutzpah and have a genuine love of big tunes and even bigger riffs. It may not be the most original sound of the day but it does the job very nicely indeed. Finland’s Von Hertzen Brothers finish the morning off in predictably brilliant fashion with vocalist Mikko Von Hertzen channelling his best John Travolta via a natty white suit that he does well not to get covered in the ubiquitous festival mud. The VHB brand of rock is so packed full of intelligence and hummable tunes, particularly the peerless ‘Flowers and Rust’, it does make you scratch your head as to why these guys aren’t absolutely massive but their time will come…..Please make it so.

Backyard Babies’ raucous and efficient cock rock gives way to the studied and equally efficient metal of Mark Tremonti who does Alter Bridge without the tunes (if you’re not a convert) and Alter Bridge with added metal (if you are).  I’m in the latter camp, as are most of an appreciative if slightly wet crowd on the main stage. The new songs from his second album, Cauterize seem to stand up equally well with the more familiar tunes from All I Was (both Fret12) too. Boxes ticked, job done.

Blackberry Smoke are the perfect band for a warm sunset, cold beers and a barbecue, so the presence of rain, wind, rain and some more rain probably didn’t help their cause but I found their performance compelling in an insouciant and entirely charming way. Billy Idol, by contrast, is a bit of a man for all seasons and you can tell why: he has an arsenal of hits that most bands would give their right arm for. You have to pinch yourself that this is 2015 and not 1985 but Idol turns in an effortless performance of crowd pleasers that you know and love- of course there’s ‘White Wedding’ and ‘Rebel Yell’ but it’s ‘Flesh for Fantasy’ and ‘Eyes Without a Face’ that are the standout tunes. Idol has this look of a man who won the lottery, the football pools and the EuroMillions over one weekend – he simply cannot quite believe that he is still the draw that he is – and, even more brilliant, no one in the crowd seems to begrudge him one iota of his considerable success. Bless him.

In much the same way that people gripe about Cavalera Conspiracy and how it’s not the REAL Sepultura (yawn, boring, get over it) so there is a similar constituency that seems to surround former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash and his latest incarnation with Myles Kennedy from Alter Bridge. Honestly, I don’t know what the problem is: what’s not to love about an artist playing a blinding set of classic song after classic song peppered with huge tune after huge tune from his latest solo records? I tell you what’s not to love: nothing. Slash clearly writes mega tunes in his sleep and his set is one hour of aural bliss. The 55,000 or so on the main field lap it up like a horde of very thirsty Pavlovian dogs. And rightly so.

Lamb of God, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Lamb of God, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Likewise, the same old situation (song pun entirely intended) for LA’s Motley Crue. Crue, midway through a thoroughly deserved and valedictory world tour to say farewell are another act that many can’t seem to wait to sneer at. “It would be better if Vince Neil could sing better”- kids, Vince Neil hasn’t been able to sing since 1981. This isn’t the point at all. Crue are about the glamour, the sleaze, the rock, the roll, the girls, girls, girls. They bring a show that is part rock opera, part vaudeville, all fire and brimstone. Of course they are absurd and ridiculous- THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. It is absolutely silly and absolutely brilliant- all at the same time.

And so we come, finally, inexorably, to the self-styled hottest band in the world, Kiss. Arriving on site in a fully badged up Kiss-copter, the New York quartet turn this corner of a foreign field into a veritable circus of pomp, circumstance and old style rock n roll. There are stadium rock shows and then there is a Kiss show. There isn’t one second that passes by in this blistering set where there isn’t something going on – fireworks, drum risers, zip wires, crowd singalongs, flame throwing, blood vomiting all in glorious technicolour and all set to a soundtrack that you know and love. As an end to the best music festival I know, it is both fitting and invigorating.

I’ve booked my place for next year already.

 

MAT DAVIES


Download Festival: Day One – Castle Donington, UK

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Download lineup

Download Fest, with its roots in the Monsters of Rock festivals that ran from 1980 until people decided rock was dead in 1996 (and Kiss and Ozzy’s shambolic co-headliner of that year pretty much proved that point) is the Grand-Daddy of Euro festivals. It’s a behemoth that dominates the rock landscape in the UK (note “rock”. This is a rock festival, with some metal, not  a metal fest. Bloodstock, Temples, Damnation are metal fests). It suffered in the 90’s from bands putting on their own outdoor all-dayers (and nicking all the support bands, too), and from being a predominantly rock festival that suddenly seemed to lose all its headliners. However, since it’s rebirth and rebranding in 2003 it has seen off European juggernaut festival Sonisphere to stand as the UK fest of choice.

Having redesigned its layout a few times, and no longer held inside the iconic Donington Park racetrack but just to the south of it, Download seems to have settled into a format that, while works, is a little familiar and perhaps would benefit from a little spicing up next year. Enter the arena, and with the main stage resplendent in front of you, to your left the second stage, and in the far right corner lies the third stage, a huge blue marquee tent. With boobs on top. Tucked to the side of the “Maverick” third stage is the relatively quiet and chilled press and guest area.

History has seen the main stage opening slot at Castle Donington act as a kingmaker opportunity; Trivium for one owe their success to a scintillating opening set in 2005. It’s fair to say All That Remains will not be joining the list of legendary openers, particularly by including that dreadful wailing ballad halfway through a twenty-five minute set.

A pleasant stroll in the sun over to Krokodil in the tent results in seeing a band doing it right; great energy, big riffs and bludgeoning hooks winning over and gaining them plaudits, before hot-footing it via the bar (where the cashless system was working perfectly in pretty much eradicating queues) back over to the main stage for At The Gates, Lacuna Coil and Clutch, ATG and Clutch in particular delivering. If you’d have said twenty years that the main stage at a mainstream fest would be hosting those bands, going down to a slavering reaction, you’d have been laughed out-of-town. Instead, ATG and Clutch showed how diverse things are these days, and how influential they’ve both been on others over the years.

 

You’d have thought a choice of Corrosion of Conformity versus Five Finger Death Punch would have only had one winner (and spare a thought for Sylosis who were on #three at the same time), and you’d have been right. Five Finger Death Punch mauled, maimed, murdered and munched down on COC with a blinding headliner-worthy show full of big riffs, sing-a-longs and making a statement. Unfortunately, I was over at the second stage watching a rather tame COC limp through a set it didn’t seem they could really be bothered with themselves. Shame, cos they’ve got some great songs.

Judas Priest did exactly what you’d want of a main support, anthems to the left of me, anthems to the right and left you wanting more, with newer tracks ‘Valhalla’ standing toe to toe with ‘Hell Bent for Leather’, ‘Painkiller’ and a particularly joyous ‘Living After Midnight’.

A bite to eat, a quick dash round the corner to see the lacklustre continue over on stage two with Black Stone Cherry phoning it in, before heading back in time for Slipknot, whose 2009 show has gone down in Donington folklore alongside Iron Maiden in 1988 as one of the UK’s all-time best metal festival headline experiences.

Slipknot, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

Slipknot, photo by Susanne A. Maathuis

I wasn’t there in 2009, but if it was better than 2015, then it must have been some set.

Opening with ‘Sarcastrophe’, what followed was an outpouring of whole-other-level excellence, as hit after bloody hit flew from the stage in an unbridled making of a fucking statement. That statement? There is no one better than Slipknot in metal right now. No one.

As all the hits followed, interspersed with a very cleverly chosen set including more reflective moments of darkness, such as ‘Killpop’ and ‘Vermillion’, their catalogue stood tall. And don’t even get me started on how fresh and violent ‘Eyeless’ was. As fellow GC scribe Mat Davies uttered “Shit the actual bed…”

With ‘Spit It Out’ seeing 80,000 people crouch in the mud, as the torrents of rain began to pour (rain that wouldn’t let up for 20 hours), before leaping to their feet to start one enormous mosh pit, Slipknot confirmed what we’re known for a while.

As I ran back to the tent, through the torrential downpour that marked the end of day one, as I dived into a tent, shedding sodden clothes (sorry for the image) and cursing the Peak Download of it chucking it down on the Friday night (after a sunny and hot day) I couldn’t help reflect that despite all that, I’d witnessed something above and beyond what most bands are capable of.

Surely, the list of standard bearers and true greats in metal now reads. Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slipknot.

 

SLIPKNOT SETLIST

XIX 

Sarcastrophe 

The Heretic Anthem 

Psychosocial 

The Devil in I 

AOV 

Vermilion 

Wait and Bleed 

Killpop 

Before I Forget 

Duality 

Eyeless 

Spit It Out 

Custer 

 

Encore:

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(sic) 

People = Shit 

Surfacing 

 

 

STEVE TOVEY

 


Blackberry Smoke Begin European Tour, Sweden Rock and Download Festival

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black berry smoke eu tour poster _eu_jun15 (1)

Blackberry Smoke are starting their summer tour in Europe tonight, including some impressive festival slots at Sweden Rocks Festival and Download Festival in The UK. Their appearance at Download festival will see the band take the stage alongside such names as. KISS, Mötley Crüe and Slash.  A second European leg commences in October. Blackberry Smoke is touring behind their Brendan O’Brien (AC/DC, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) produced ‘Holding All The Roses’ (Rounder Records) album which dropped in February.

 

Blackberry Smoke tour dates:
Jun 04 Amager Bio – Copenhagen, DK
Jun 05 Sweden Rocks Festival – Solvesborg, CH
Jun 06 Rockerfeller – Oslo, NO
Jun 09 Hedon – Zwolle, NL
Jun 10 Muziekodroom – Hasselt, BE
Jun 12 Liquid Room – Edinburgh, UK
Jun 13 Garage – Aberdeen, UK
Jun 14 Download Festival- Derbyshire, UK
Oct 17 Sala Arena – Madrid, SP
Oct 18 Bikini – Barcelona, SP
Oct 20 Trabendo – Paris, FR
Oct 22 Alcatraz – Milan, IT
Oct 23 Dynamo- Zurich, SW
Oct 24 Flex- Vienna, AT
Oct 26 CClub – Berlin, DE
Oct 27 Gruenspan – Hamburg, DE
Oct 29 Debaser Medis – Stockholm, SE
Oct 30 Mejeriet – Lund, SE
Nov 01 Paradiso- Amsterdam, NL


King Hitter – King Hitter

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king hitter ep 2015

If there is ever a time I get to go on a great road trip (outside of Maryland Deathfest this year) I will be certainly cranking albums like King Hitter’s self titled debut EP. For those not familiar, King Hitter consists of Karl Agell on vocals (Corrosion of Conformity/COC BLIND/Leadfoot), Scott Little on guitar (Leadfoot), Mike Brown also on guitar (Cutterhead), Jon Chambliss sitting behind the set (S.L.A.M.), and Chuck Manning keeping up the low end on bass (S.L.A.M.). Overall, I liked the groovy, southern personality this group brings on their first EP. Karl’s vocals may not be the harsh vocals the heavy metal culture is accustomed to nowadays, but I find them to be fitting. Even if this EP only has five tracks on it, each one has its own feel and vibe which kept me interested throughout.

The first track, properly entitled ‘King Hitter’, is a great sample of what these guys have to offer. A great southern, bluesy feel while still keeping it groovy. Karl’s vocal hooks are also very catchy and listener’s will catch themselves head banging for sure. ‘Drone Again’ and ‘Feel No Pain’ increase the ante by getting a little heavier on the guitars and, at times, had sections of instrumentals that sounded like a punk rock band. ‘Suicide (is the Retirement Plan)’ wins the award for most clever song title of the month by a landslide as we hit the second half of the album. However, even if this EP is coming to an end, King Hitter does not wind down at all. Arguably one of the heaviest guitar riffs on the album comes in the verse of this song. Lastly, we have the most appropriate song title to end any album, ‘The End.’ The mood of this song swings more than pendulum which I though adds to the insanity of all endings really. Halfway through the track we get the most bluesy guitar solo I may have ever heard from a heavy metal band.

Overall I did enjoy this EP and I look forward to see what else King Hitter has to offer. For fans of bands like Corrosion of Conformity, Down, and even Volbeat, I feel you should check these guys out. Even if none of the aforementioned bands interest you, check out King Hitter.

 

7.0/10

TIM LEDIN


Desert Storm – Omniscient Masters

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If the adage “times flies when you’re having fun” has any sort of current validation then Oxford’s Desert Storm must be having quite a lot of fun as this is, almost unbelievably, their third album. Following a debut record, Forked Tongue (independent/self-released), that showed a huge amount of promise, a second album (Horizontal Life) (Blindsight) that pretty much said “yes, they know exactly what they are doing: more please”, the band’s bluesy, riff hungry, gnarlier-than-you take on southern influenced blues/sludge rock suggested a band with its heart and its head in deepest Missouri as opposed to the English home counties.

For this third album, the enigmatically titled Omniscient Masters (Blindsight), the word “experimentation” occasionally springs to mind, although, worry not, the departures are more nuanced than truly startling- they haven’t gone all One Direction on us, for example. Omniscient Masters is the sound of a band feeling like they need to stretch their creative legs a bit, whilst continuing to deliver slab after slab of riff-tastic blues rock.

To these ears, Omniscient Masters is an album that owes something of a creative debt to Orange Goblin. As any fool know, there’s not much wrong with that and so it proves on the splendid and splendidly titled ‘Collapse of the Bison Lung’ which is stirring and heavier than a lead and iron sandwich.  You won’t need a post-graduate qualification to know what ‘Queen Reefer’ is all about and ‘Outlander’ is dirtier than a post festival wardrobe. So far, so familiar and so very welcome. There is a very Anglo-Saxon sense of humour running through ‘Nightbus Blues’ and its very recognisable tales of that 4am walk home from a session too far will doubtless be familiar to many readers although I’m less sure how well this translates to an international audience.

Those highlights apart, the rest of the album is not quite up to scratch and, as a long time watcher of the band, I worry that this is going to end up as a missed opportunity. Omnisicient Masters is good but it’s not great and I so wanted it to be great. I rate this band; they’ve got a certain something that is genuinely worth championing. I can’t help but think that with a bit more work and a producer like, say, Andy Sneap working with them, we would have had a little bit more judicious editing and a bit more forensic focus on the execution; as it stands, Omniscient Masters is ok when it should have been K.O. Plenty of credit for the experimentation, but points deducted for the execution; a veritable curate’s egg, then. If your curate is a metal head, of course.

 

7.0/10

Desert Storm on Facebook

 

MAT DAVIES

 


Blackberry Smoke – Holding All The Roses

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I have a musical comfort zone. And it’s all the way over there with the Jackson Flying V’s and double-bass drums. It may even include some spandex (not on me, though…) Yet here I am, sitting here, rocking on the porch (sofa), nodding along to the Southern vibes of Atlanta, Georgia’s Blackberry Smoke and their fourth album Holding All The Roses (Earache).  And I’m more than fine with that.

Following the critical and commercial success of The Whippoorwill (Earache/Southern Ground) would have daunting to many bands, but not the Smoke, who shacked up with mega-producer Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen). Any fears that such a hit-maker would sterilize their sound are quickly dispersed by the laidback singalong to ‘Let Me Help You Find The Door’ and it’s rock n’ roll shamble. The title track shuffles in next, picking up the beat, with some clean guitar fingerpicking and a more uptempo come-and-join-us chorus. Whereas the temptation could have been to seek the big bucks and accidentally fall into the trap of producing sanitized radio rock, instead Blackberry Smoke have infused their music with even more of a traditional Southern flavour, and, boy, does it suit.

Blackberry Smoke are no gimmick band, just a class one with their hearts in yesteryear and a love of venerable records, releasing an album full of simple pleasures; of pure, excellent songs. There are many highlights, the pick of which are the two melancholy numbers, the deeper, bluesier ‘Woman In The Moon’, where Charlie Starr’s lazy delivery comes into its own, and ‘No Way Back To Eden’ (a track I’d have been tempted to close the album on), both of which prove the quintet have that added depth all the best have. In amongst the swathes of Creedence Clearwater Revival (and several other subtle references I’m too unschooled to know) ‘Too High’ is wistful country and ‘Rock and Roll Again’ is the sound of the Deep South ripping on Status Quo and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Call Me The Breeze’, while ‘Payback’s A Bitch’ has a work-shy hook that will infect you like sidewinder venom, as Holding All The Roses unfurls it’s kick-ass blues rock beauty with a smile.

I’ll level. If Blackberry Smoke weren’t on Earache, the chances are high I wouldn’t have been interested in checking them out. Chances are also as good as getting a 7+ on a 15 hand in pontoon we wouldn’t be included them in the hallowed digi-pages of the good ship Ghost Cult without the same, or similar, connection. And we’d have missed out on a warm, chilled out doozy, so hats off to Dig and all concerned for branching out and expanding their traditional net. I’m delighted they did. I’m not going to go off and dive into a whole other musical genre, but I’m glad the Smoke have entered my life and my music collection. They won’t be for everyone who frequents a metal site, but they should be for people who value unassuming good rock songs.

If there is justice out there, the winds will spread the Blackberry pollen far and wide.

 

8.5/10

Blackberry Smoke on Facebook

 

STEVE TOVEY


Twingiant – Devil Down

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DD Front Cover (1)

 

I presume the name of this Phoenix rumbling machine is pronounced ‘Twin Giant’, rather than being some bizarre moniker for someone who suffers sudden painful episodes [you mean like Twinge-ee-unt? That’d be odd… Phonetics Ed]. A somewhat irrelevant point, you say? Maybe, but none more so than certain passages of its sophomore full-length Devil Down (Medusa Crush).

That said, there’s a neat line in southern-infused stoner here, with luscious, howling lead solos a la Vulgaari‘s Brett Hedtke to boot. Delightfully-named opener ‘Old Hag’ is a languid yet moody beginning, all ‘stoner meets The Doors-in-the-Mojave, the dust getting right into a grainy production which completely suits the feel, some seriously chunky riffs planting the coda deep in the sand. Former Black Hell vocalist Jarrod Leblanc’s whisky-soaked growl rails over the more up tempo ‘Dead to Rights’, which carries something of the bloated stodge associated with the genre but is enlivened by some fascinating lead and rhythm work. Meanwhile, some plundering bass work from Leblanc sets up the ripping ‘Daisy Cutter’, a barrelling pace combining 70s suvvern rawk with the inhospitable wastelands of a desert storm and a moody, howling centrepiece.

So, it’s not to say the album’s terrible, but the main accusation frequently levelled at this sort of stuff is that it too often sounds like an easy Sunday afternoon jam session at your local rock pub; a little lazy, like your lovable Dad with his middle-age spread (hiya Girls), and not a little dated. Despite some swelling riffs and crushing power, those deficiencies appear throughout the aptly-titled ‘Through the Motions’; while the jerky, Allman-infused ‘Under a Blood Moon’, despite occasionally stirring the emotions, threatens to get going yet never really makes it. In a disappointing ending, only a sludgy vocal and the brief explosion of a pounding riff rescue the closing title track from utter tedium.

That said, this does, at times, rip, those driving riffs sounding like a firing engine with groove-laden, trippy leads dancing all over ‘Tiger Lily’. It’s a warm, heavy sound which isn’t for everyone, but evokes welcome memories of days gone by and will certainly get a gasoline party going.

 

6.0/10

Twingiant on Facebook

 

PAUL QUINN

 


The New Southern Trendkill – Zain Smith of Anti-Mortem

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It’s a rare thing these days for a brand new band not featuring ex-members of other bands to appear fully formed and ready to take on the mainstream. Anti-Mortem could well be the exception to the rule. With their debut New Southern fresh out on Nuclear Blast Ghost Cult caught up with guitarist Zain Smith.

 

“Dude, I’m stoked to finally release it man. It’s been a long time and we’re finally here! The record’s out, the first week sales are in and they’re good, we had a strong first week, and it’s going awesome!”

Zain Smith, guitarist for Anti-Mortem is in a good mood. And who can blame him. There’s not many guys in their (very) early 20’s with a debut on the biggest independent label in the world getting the kind of push and praise that his band is receiving. But this isn’t a tale of “next big thing”. New Southern has been 8 years in the making.

“We all went to high school together; we started bringing our guitars to school and we kinda became friends that way. We’d jam on the guitar for years and years, and gradually got better and better, making progress, we’d play better shows, getting better opportunities, start meeting people…

“When we were nobodies in the first 3, 4 years of the band, there was a bit of ego, a bit of “We’re so cool!” listening to nobody, buying into our own shit and whatever we’d want to do, but we realized we needed to start listening and focusing on this. We met a guy in the city, Provo, he’s in a band called Everybody Panic, but he’s also playing guitar in Skinlab, he was the first dude we met, and he’d toured, done some label stuff, and he was like the idol of the Oklahoma scene, so we listened to him.”

Anti-Mortem band

For such a young band, Anti-Mortem display exceptional maturity and humility, which serves them well. “ Provo, I’d give him a lot of credit for that, but I think we have to credit ourselves, too, for being great listeners. In this business you don’t know what you’re talking about if you haven’t done it, but the people that have been out here for years, they’re the ones who can teach you. Listening is a big part of it – you can’t just get out there and be all “I’m the shit, I know everything”.

“He (Provo)’s one of the main reasons this all happened, teaching us the ways of life and how to be in a band. Him being in Skinlab is how it all came down. Skinlab came to Oklahoma to play and we supported them. Steev (Esquivel – vocals/bass in Skinlab)’s seen us play and was all “You guys are phenomenal. Monte Connor’s my good buddy, we’re going to get you signed”. So we started talking to Monte (former Roadrunner mainman, now partnered with Nuclear Blast) and we’ve been in contact with him since.”

So, onto the next chapter in the story. Or the first chapter as far as albums go. Entitled ‘New Southern’ it’s not like the band are hiding their roots. But there’s more to Anti-Mortem than a Southern twang… “We don’t just do the Southern thing, but we try to keep that in there too. It started with getting a guitar and just wanting to play riffs, you know. AC/DC riffs, Metallica riffs and we really love the deep Southern tone that comes with that type of music. We’re huge, huge fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchett, Down, Corrosion of Conformity and Pantera, of course, but we do branch out to other things.”

One thing that sets Anti-Mortem apart is, for their metal imagery and death-related name, they haven’t been swept up in the metal trend of screaming or shouted vocals, harking back to a bygone age of great singers, of proper vocalists. “We’re huge fans of great vocalists like Robert Plant, that’s a big inspiration to Nevada (Romo, Guitarist) and our vocalist (Larado Romo, known as Rado). Stuff from the 60’s and 70’s and then from the early 90’s, like Chris Cornell, bands that were just about big badass rock vocals.

“Rado, he’s got a voice, he’s got a talent. We knew that from day one. He’s always been developing it and getting it to where it needs to be, but that’s what makes us, in my opinion, versus every other band that’s out there trying to do it. When it gets to metal, hey, I’m a metal dude, I listen to a lot of metal, I love it, but the thing is, everybody jumps on the metal train and it gets to points when you’re a screamer where you either sound like Randy Blythe or you might sound like Meshuggah. That’s it. There’s like 4 different types of screaming only, so once you do that, you sound like everybody else. So the originality has to come from the band only, but with Rado… Monte at Nuclear Blast he told us from day one, ‘Your boy’s got a voice. He’s great. His voice is fucking special’.”

 

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Another thing that impresses is that Anti-Mortem keep the guitars turned up to 11 all the way through, there’s no let up or temptation to chuck in a countrified, round the campfire acoustic song. “If any song is close to that on the record, it’d be ‘Black Heartbeat’ which we wrote at a time when we were thinking we might want to be a radio band and we were writing songs for Roadrunner, because that’s originally where Monte was until he left, but we’re just huge fans of metal, rock and rock n’roll, and we’re also big fans of the Rex Brown (Pantera) bass tone, you know it’s the biggest baddest bass tone you can ever get, and the biggest drum sound, the biggest guitars you could ever get. The legends, the bands that really changed music, Metallica, Zeppelin, they were all firing on all cylinders all the time. James Hetfield’s great, Cliff Burton’s amazing, I mean all the bass players they’ve had have been great, but they’re all firing. Take Zeppelin, I mean Robert Plant was the weakest link of their thing, and yet he’s great. Every member of all these bands has to be firing, and that’s what we strive for – being the best.”

So how did the songs come together? Over 8 years of being together, despite most of the band clocking in at 22/23 years of age, must have helped hone a writing style you feel can keep you at the top of your game long into the future? “We write different ways, man. We write in band practice as a group, we write on acoustics, we are all writers. I have pro-tools so I can write all the time. ‘Ride Of Your Life’ is a song I wrote, Rado came over, wrote the vocals and words and, boom, song. ‘Hate Automatic’ is one where Nevada has pro-tools too, he wrote the whole song, Rado put the vocals on and boom, song. Then there’s songs like ‘Truck Stop Special’ where we all as a band were in a jam spot in rehearsal and I had a couple of cool riffs, Nevada threw in a bridge and middle 8 and boom, song. There are songs we’ve written on acoustics and put them together. We have radio hit songs, the heavy hard-hitters that could make it to the radio, then we have songs like ‘I Get Along With The Devil’ that’d never make it to the radio – it says “motherfucker” too much!

“We just write all the time. With bands, their first records tend to be better than the rest because they get busy and they don’t have time to write good material. So when we’re home, or not busy, we’re trying to write songs because you never know when the time comes and a label will say “We need 2 more records now”. You never know, they may say “This record’s doing well, let’s ride this shit for 2 years” or they may say “This one isn’t working, we need you in there now”. The bands that don’t have songs will get screwed, because they don’t have material and then the producer ends up writing it all and then the record turns out not well. Fans can see. Fans can see what’s our music and what’s producers music.”

With an album out, and the band already on the touring cycle in the States at the moment, it is inevitable that live is where the band are looking to make their mark next, with several great opportunities coming their way. “We’ve got shows with Lacuna Coil, which will be great for us in the US, then we’ve got Download festival in the UK, and because it costs so much money to get over to the UK we’re going to try and stay over there and tour there if we can, try and stay over. Then July is probably the biggest thing for us – we landed a Machine Head tour in the US, who were nice enough to say “Let’s go” to us. That’s all for now, but with the record out stuff will keep happening.”

The ball is rolling. The New Southern Trendkill has begun.

 

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STEVE TOVEY