An emerging 2-piece band, Bass Drum Of Death, may at first be brushed off for being more of the same. White Stripes, Black Keys; they’ve heard it all before. But this would be a mistake, for while the garage rock duo don’t bring anything really new to the table, the make up for it in raw riffs, power chords aplenty, and yes, lots of bass drumming of the ‘death’ variety.
GB city is the album debut for Josh Garret and Colin Sneed, and as far as album debut’s go, it’s a strong one. The opening track, “Nerve Racking” doesn’t waste any time in getting your head banging with a pounding drum opening and a gritty guitar riff. While the instrumentation is simple, it serves the garage rock/grunge formula well with its under produced sound.
But you can’t help but wish the vocals didn’t go down this same road. Garret has exactly one tone in his singing arsenal; a droning howl, that makes it almost impossible to believe he cares about what he’s saying. He drones on about pot, drinking, girls, sex, the devil, insanity; classic rock and roll staples, but you can’t be moved to care. The good news is, lyrics aren’t the grab here. If you’re in the mood for a grungy, riff driven, garage rock sound, then Bass Drum Of Death delivers.
The loud, sonic assault formula, begins to wear on the listener by the end of the album. There’s not a lot of depth to be found here. It begins by assaulting your ears with a wall of sound and doesn’t change gears once. But for an album that was recorded by one kid in a basement with a USB, it does exactly what it set out to do. Not a masterpiece, but a promising first step.
Bump |
