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The Seattle Sound in Georgia?
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I know it's hard to believe, a Southern Grunge band. It's as if Kurt Cobain was resurrected as a right-handed, guitar player with a more advanced harmonic vocabulary and a slightly less edgy voice and he had enough of the Pacific Northwest. So Cobain goes down to Georgia and hooks up with some guys including a keyboard player with a strong affinity for the sound of a Hammond B3 organ and a lead guitar player who loves playing with a bottleneck slide and really can play. As ridiculous as it sounds, this band really has something going. The album gets off to a bad start. "Heavy Petting" is a really lackluster song that mostly oscillates between two chords and contains little melody and lots of awful screaming and growling. From there, everything is great. The album's single "The Rat" is really wonderful as well as the eerie "It Was A Rose" in which the vocalist goes from a somber apathetic tone to emotionally charged, gravelly higher range singing. The other most notable track is the epic "Flesh Colored Canvas" which takes a full 12 minutes to elapse with lots of peaks and valleys to keep the music fresh. While the overall tone of the album is consistently dark, minor and grungy, the band manages to develop songs over some long periods of time with volume and timbre. The band uses fairly unique instrumentation with heavy drums and bass, often a crunchy guitar pitted against another more strident guitar often played with a slide and frequent use of B3 organ creating a very unique sound world. Hopefully this band will continue to make good music, as I can see their future go in one of three different directions: they can either not gain enough support and fizzle out as if they had never been in the music scene, get signed by a major label and become whores of the music industry joining the ranks of Linkin Park, Fallout Boy and Nickelback, or they can gain enough support to stay a bit underground and continue to make really good music. They have something really great going and I can only hope they stay on the right track.
Rating: 
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-12-11
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Very Refreshing
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It's about time an album like this came out. "The Rat" originally got me into DC, as well as their EP (which I also strongly recommend). In the age of over-commercialized/over-recycled corporate garbage, such a raw and honest band is indeed very refreshing. Reminds of me of the first time I heard Pearl Jam's "Ten". I hope these guys become very successful
Rating:
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-10-24
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Grungy
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Gritty and grungy, just what the doctor ordered. Scratches the itch that has been ignored far too long.
Rating:
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-10-18
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Nothing Like it No Where
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I have heard this band many times and this is their masterpiece but believe Brantley and Hardy will write some more great stuff in the future when they get pissed or crapped on. I also really think they should move to Seattle to capture the Nirvana fans but tour the south so we can see them too. Good luck guys---great CD!!!!
Rating:
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-10-12
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Yep, this band will be BIG
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I have seen this band live 3 times now. Amazing performance each time. This disc captures some of the raw, magnetic power that is Dead Confederate. No disc will ever do their live show justice.
Track Reviews
1) Heavy Petting (9/10) - A great rocking curtain jerking track to start this album off right.
2) The Rat (10/10) - This is the song that created the DC buzz. A rerecord from the earlier EP version. I like both recordings, but once again, this one does more justice to the live DC sound.
3) Goner (10/10) - DC had the demo for this song on their myspace page for while. This rerecord is better than the demo and this song just plain rocks with a slight southern twang.
4) It Was a Rose (9/10) - Lyrically, a masterpiece. Listen closely and be drawn in.
5) Yer Circus (8/10) - One of the albums low points, but still better than any of the crap you hear on the FM radio.
6) All the Angels (11/10) - Yes, an eleven. The haunting vocal melody in the verses sends chills down my spine.
7) Start Me Laughing (10/10) - Ultimate rock out w/ your cock out song.
8) The News Underneath (8/10) - Another low point, but can you really expect and album full of masterpieces?
9) Flesh Colored Canvas (10/10) - An absolute emotional roller coaster.
10) Wrecking Ball (9/10) - Title track. Metaphors galore.
Rating:
(5
out of 5) @ 2008-09-23
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