Anti-Mortem

New Southern

Nuclear Blast Entertainment, 2014

Heavy metal as of late, has become an endless string of unmemorable, cliched, boring as shit, trite gorilla growled, nameless and faceless hacks, who couldn’t write a memorable riff, let alone song, to save their sorry, muted E chuffing selves. So imagine my surprise to hear a metal/hard rock album I liked pretty much from start to finish.

Not only do Anti-Mortem write memorable, hooky songs, there’s a singer who can sing, and some guitarists familiar with playing a melodic lead. Makes me scratch my head and wonder what’s next?

Is metal about to emerge from the dark ages of tedium and stagnation?

One can only hope.

Oklahoma’s Anti- Mortem is a fun and promising piece of dirty, underhanded rock. The album start to finish feels like a proper updating of any number of under appreciated Southern rock bands. “I get along with the Devil is a smoking three minute slab of noteworthy aggression. “Path to Pain” is slower grind with fiery back to back guitar leads that are brief and leaving the listener wanting more.

“Truck Stop Special” is another standout track. With some interesting subtleties buried in the git’ playing. The rhythm section is a solid no nonsense pair and perfect for this band. The vocals Larado Romo delivers are as familiar as well worn denim jacket and manage a gritty snarl snarl or a upturned melody with equal amounts of ease.

The album shines with bright moments throughout and this re-tooling of a familiar themes to sound and feel current is welcome.