Review – Southern Discomfort – Confrontation

Sodom and Kreator move to Louisiana, are so inspired by all things N’Awlins that they form an Eyehategod cover band. (Naming themselves after the song…?)

Thrash’ed sludge.

It’s as fucked up and awesome as it sounds.

The precision of the above Teutonic titans, with the greasy EHG riffing sounds….

Southern Discomfort are in fact four Germans from the city of Kassel, Dave (v), Sascha (g), Marcel (d) and Timo (b)– they formed in 2006 based on a love of Pantera, Lamb of God, Crowbar and “all that heavy doom stuff,” to quote Dave, whose English is quite good. Perhaps not surprisingly.

As a Southerner with German ancestry who grew up playing thrash metal, this albums hits me where it hurts– and it feels good, Jack.  I mean… Klaus.

The guitars sound single-tracked (and sound thin, but which personally I love) like they’re played through a Crate amp, or a chainsaw…and a very trebly one (only detuned to D, not that far down at all for a sludge band)….

There’s a very low-budget sound overall (intentionally?): there’s only bass (i.e., not a second guitar) under solos —love that— and I don’t know if they were intentionally going for a live feel, but it’s definitely here: the rawness of everything hearkens back to early/mid 1980s “single guitarist” metal bands like Toxik or early (pre-Horrorscope) Overkill.

Unfortunately, this highlights what sounds like “young” songwriting skills/playing (i.e., crude but enthusiastic)– Imagine what they could do with more money and practice writing songs….

The overall feel is similar to EHG, but isn’t lazy: you know what I mean– EHG sound angry and aggressive, but sluggish and slow, like a drunk abusive husband. Southern Discomfort sound like the same husband, but on Coke or PCP– coordinated, precise and strong. Like opening riff “Coronis”– it’s got the bent low strings of a good sludge riff, but never lags behind the beat for a second. It’s Atomic Clock precise.

It’s Very German.

Tracks:

“Fuck ’em All,” has obvious Prong/ Sepultura elements: the angry, barky vocals, the quirky riffs… the occasional drops into live industrial-type riffs (what is it with Germans and industrial metal…?).

“In Southern Flames” sounds like a drunken Destruction outtake from Mad Butcher, and is wicked cool. By track 5, “Mistake” you’ll notice there are some serious riffs on here; memorable and ugly, heavy and groovy. The kind of riffs that make you wanna air guitar or learn to play them (if you play)….

Southern Discomfort also make good use of the single guitar: they’re one of the only [metal] bands I’ve listened to recently that often has separate guitar and bass parts. Very cool. “Stoned” has an open-chord riff that smokes over a windy-root-note bass part.

“Undying” and its main riff evoke a southern version of Rage, as does “Storm of the South” with its wah-wah’ed (is that an adjective?) riff….

“Driven by the Moon” (the only track not “single” length, at over seven minutes), vaguely sounds like Badlands’ “High Wire” with its pinch-harmonic riff….

Hear it and make your own decision: