Though I like them, it is a little confusing how this band from France sounds like stoner bikers trekking through the deserts of Arizona. The were once considered black metal but now there is nothing really black metal about them and they sound to have more in common with Eyehategod than Mayhem . There are traces of the black metal dissonance on songs like "the South Will Always Know My Name" it stays at a slow sludge like pace, not creepy enough to be doom.
There is a Black Sabbath foreboding to opening riffs of "Blackpowder Roars". The vocals are really raw and gnarly, with a distorted filter over them that sounds like they were recorded using blown out speakers. The organic fuzz to the guitar tone reminds me of the first Down album and the riffs are loaded with as much groove.
"Wolves at My Door" they bring the blast back for a minute, before they wind up back in a whiskey soaked shuffle, doused in the double bass.The next t hint of black anything is on "I Asked For Wine, He Gave Me Blood", I like the chorus on that , it reminds me of Deicide for some reason and parts are rather Watain of them. So it's proof they haven't lost it, and are just choosing to pretend like they are from South Louisiana. Some of the riffs even go as far as to remind me of Corrosion of Conformity.
It gets a little darker on "Le Blackout Blues" the guitar riffs leave a lot of sonic space for everything to ring out. Two minutes in it really pick up into a quick boogie before the drugs kick in a slow them back down. They are pros at coming up with good dark lead ins to songs, the problems seem to occur when the build reckless momentum, "Backwoods Bayou" keeps the cool sonic element but stay instrumental and never fully realizes it as a song. Where a song like " Ain't No Pit Deep Enough" has a fairly straightforward intro and stays the course in Crow Bar like territory, but with nastier vocals and bluesier guitar embellishments. There is a cool that gets layered over the distorted crawl.
At times thing border line the Panterrible southern groove thing too closely for my taste-buds and doesn't have enough blackened elements. Then there are moments like "A Hoax , A Croc" where they manage to ooze the darkness out the pentatonic murk.It rears it riff up and runs at you like a wild boar midway through the song. There are coarse sung vocals that pop every now and then, and they are very Phil Anselmo.
"From One Rebel to Another" has a large does of stoned boogie to it, and makes hope the French government will crack down on the importation of Pantera in France as they have a great scene and don't want it contaminated by too much of this. You can put this album on shuffle mode and all the songs seem to blend into one another just seamlessly as they do when you listen to it straight through. There is a groove to "Built For Discomfort" you can not resist head banging to, despite the Down thing it finds it self leaning back into .
The album closes down shop with the title track, that has a more hazy simmer to it and the bass player opens up and wanders around under the guitar solos. The vocals here remind me of a rougher Venom for some reason. Some of the Southern sludge elements given a coat of darkness here, have already been done better by Acid Bath, though this is a much more grime glazed album. I'll give this one a 7.5 as , it's decent for what it is and ends on a high note, me and this band have grown apart , but if you want to hear what happens when a black metal band turns into Down, check it out for sure.
8.4
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