Andrew Danso

Southern American Metal. Unquestionably one of the first discoveries you’ll make on your rock revolution evolution. On a technical level simple to perform, that demands very little from the listener. The genres ever congested arena has acts pouring from the sky and melting ice shards as we know of them. Definite success is a lottery. God Damn’s latest addition to the fumes, ‘Old Days’ is not only strange by means of a French group completing this entry, but by a means of how fresh and yet totally traditional the record sounds. The authenticity, the production, the personality, the binary written tracks, and the performances are all remarkably present, but surely this is just another Cowboys-from-Satan-made-up-chameleon-land?

The first half of the record is a much more muscular affair than its other half, which is integral to its design, as their testosterone (or indeed yours) will carry the main foundations of this experience. The initial introduction “Landing for My Pride” is possibly their biggest brute, with an opening that marvels in the correct amount of aggression that the album needs for it to trigger your attention and maintain. Which sets up the entire disc suitably, with the band clinging to atypical grooves and middle to end bridges within their song structure. However, it’s how they have been placed to together with a particular finesse and bravery that make God Damn all the more admirable.

The records second half is a more watered down, diluted approach that starts to feel neither here or there with song writing becoming periodically repetitive and tedious. However there is a much more explorative quality in the later numbers, with God Damn sounding more unique and albeit pale at the same time.

Blessed with superb production, excellent song writing and passionate performances, Old Days is a record that understands it must be of irrefutable quality to even scratch the surface, in such a littered market. The albums desired punch out does its shortcomings toward the final stages, even though depth at times is non-existent. Old Days may not differ that much from what’s currently available, however it does claim the right for its own territorial space that comfortably sits beside giants such as BLS, and Damageplan. A more brute than brawn package, that does not try to be different from its southern precursors but fails to imitate them all the same – a cliché that certainly appears to work.

8/10 Metal-Mayhem.co.uk