Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 09/16/2008
Dead Confederate mine a mix of haunting
Southern rock and angst-driven
grunge on
Wrecking Ball, the band's debut album. At its best,
Wrecking Ball mires itself in a swamp of spacy guitars and raw vocals, evoking the deep-space atmospherics of
Pink Floyd while remaining rooted in the American South. At its worst, the album dives into the same heavy sludge that dominated
Silverchair's early work, especially on tracks like
"Heavy Petting." Wrecking Ball is a dark, angry affair filled with minor chords and fuzzy guitar riffs; its biggest asset, then, is the band's contrasting love for vintage
stoner rock. When
grunge and psychedelia combine,
Dead Confederate turns out the album's most effective songs, from
"Flesh Colored Canvas" (at a whopping 12 minutes, the tune's hypnotic grit almost erases the sourness of its title) to
"The Rat," where frontman
Hardy Morris wearily begs an ex-lover to shoot him. Fortunately,
Dead Confederate bills itself as a psychedelic rock band, which means this reliance on sludgy
grunge may decrease on future albums. As a debut album, however,
Wrecking Ball only hints at the band's potential.
~Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
;)
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