RockBox - Weedeater - Jason The Dragon (2011)

Weedeater - Jason The Dragon (2011)

Quote:

With a sound and presence like no other band in the world, Weedeater stand apart from all others, both live and on their recordings. Their unfiltered and unrefined energy surges uncontrollably through the band and anyone who bears witness to their live show. Spite and deep resentment somehow fuse with comedy and maximum volume to produce an indignant, vomitous (both figuratively and sometimes literally) performance that is forced upon the willing yet hapless crowd.

You are instantly swallowed whole by both Dixie and Shep's nearly indistinguishable monster bass and guitar tones, and you are absolutely beaten to a bloody pulp and scared for your life by Keko's crazed, yet amazingly potent bashing of his kit; with sticks that look like tree trunks turning into a splintered mess by the end of every song. If you had any sense you might actually take a step back and contemplate your safety for a moment, but then you come to your senses (sort of, anyway) and realize you're at a f*cking Weedeater show, and this is why you came here, and there is no way to deny what you are witnessing. Pure, unabashed, musical violence in every form. It's real, and it's dangerous, and it feels so damn good.

After 2007's critically acclaimed and now classic release, "God Luck and Good Speed" had been toured to death around the world, the boys finally took some time between the mishaps and mayhem of 2010 to write and record their 2nd album for Southern Lord Recordings and 4th full-length CD/LP, "Jason...The Dragon", which will be released March 15th on both CD and LP. Recorded and mixed once again by the legendary Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago, and mastered once again by the equally as legendary John Golden at Golden Studios in southern California, "Jason..." continues the legacy that has culminated over nearly 15 years of the band's existence into something truly unique and masterful. Once again, we are dragged through the mire by three of the finest dirge merchants in the world, and the songwriting is just as ingenious as ever and seems to start just where "God Luck..." left off, with "Hammerhandle" kicking things off in an oscillating groove that builds and falls and then eventually melts into "Mancoon", a ripping tune that spans themes from homemade dynamite to true tales of human bite wounds and other guttural warnings that are surely not meant to be taken lightly. The band returns to their swampy roots via acoustic bass and banjo with the album's closer "Whiskey Creek", and they venture into totally new territory with the hook-laden, driving force that is "Homecoming". Dixie's solo performance on "Palms and Opium" sounds like a narcotic jam that he and Dean Ween had at a private nitrous party on a deserted island; the track was inspired by and written during the blissed-out visions Dixie had while laid up on pain pills for a month after blowing off his big toe with a shotgun in early 2010. We don't need to go back there again, do we? Seems like we just did. The masterpiece is of course the album's namesake, "Jason...the Dragon" which takes the listening doomernaut on a slithering journey though a sludgy world of viscous, black molasses riffs that are punctuated by cannon drums and some of the album's most memorable lyrics.

With a full headlining tour of the US planned for February and March and a European tour shortly thereafter with a stop at Roadburn and more dates to be announced soon, the band is rearing to take 2011 by storm and there is a horde of rabid fans ready to hear their newest offerings.

Weedeater @ Myspace

Current line-up
Dave "Dixie" Collins - Vocals, Bass (Buzzov•en, Bongzilla, Sourvein, Hail!Hornet)
Dave Shepherd - Guitar
Keith Kirkum - Drums

Review

Quote:

When it comes to sludge veterans Weedeater, what you see is what you get. A quick review of the band’s back catalog reveals album titles such as “And Justice for Y’all,” “Sixteen Tons,” and “God Luck and Good Speed.” These titles in particular show just what Weedeater is all about: the South, heaviness, and drugs, perhaps in reverse order. Indeed, the North Carolina trio has gone so far as to call their distinctive brand of doom/sludge weed metal, and most of their songs are paeans to the world’s favorite smokable plant. Weedeater’s love for grass, all things heavy, and American geographical features south of the Mason-Dixon line makes for a genial listen: 2011’s “Jason… the Dragon” is pure, uncut, honest-to-God Southern-fried sludge that relies more on groovy riffs and rocking rhythms than so-called feedback soundscapes or whatever the hell else the more pretentious doom/sludgers are trying to craft these days.

One of the things that stands out about “Jason the Dragon” is that bass and guitar seem to switch roles. Bassist/vocalist Dixie Collins is front and center pretty much all the time, cranking out slow and mid-paced, largely pentatonic riffs on his thunderous, obscenely overdriven axe, and guitarist Dave Shepherd pretty much follows along with his own distorted, down-tuned counterpoint. Obviously this, in itself, is nothing new in the sludge and Southern rock scenes. Yet when Weedeater does it, they achieve a wall-of-sound effect that a lot of bands would do well to envy. Moreover, while more high-minded groups like Zoroaster focus on glacially slow melodies, creepy effects, and static harmonic rhythms, Weedeater favors uncomplicated, clearly phrased riffs and harmonies, on top of easygoing 4/4 and 6/8 bars. The result is an album that’s rawer and rocks a good deal harder than many darlings of the sludge scene – in other words, it’s closer to High on Fire than it is to Baroness. Dixie Collins’ voice is also ideal for this type of music. He bellows and croaks through two-pack-a-day pipes bathed in all kinds of smoke and whiskey, and, in so doing, manages to sound like a cross between Tom Waits, Lemmy, and Grover from Sesame Street. Especially noteworthy is “Palms of Opium,” which features upright bass, slide guitar, no drums, and Collins’ raspy and not-at-all-unpleasant croon.

In another notable plus, Weedeater knows when to quit: these songs rarely stray over three-and-a-half minutes long, and you can count the riffs in each song on one hand. The trudging opener, “Hammerhandle,” has exactly one riff for a full three minutes, but the boys keep it from getting boring by staggering the entrances of each instrument, paying attention to the vocal phrasing, and cutting it off before the vibe gets stale. The same can be said for the head-bobbing “Mancoon,” which employs a brisk 12/8 throughout, and the evil blues of “Turkey Warlock.” Yet the finest track here is undoubtedly the nearly 6-minute “Jason… the Dragon,” which features some nifty guitar noodling (one of the only points on the album where the guitar establishes itself as an instrument separate from the bass), a bunch of winding, killer riffs that sound like the result of a jam between Black Sabbath and Rage Against the Machine, and some of the album’s best lyrics, many of which further the noble Southern tradition of favoring state’s rights in a most unorthodox way (“Ten pounds of shit / In a five-pound bag / Abandon ship / And burn that fuckin’ flag!”) There’s also a bit of variety on here. The aforementioned “Palms of Opium” is an enjoyable piece of drug-obsessed hick psychedelia, and the instrumental closer “Whiskey Creek” features some more Southern flavor, including a twanging banjo, ambient nature noises, and a needle-toned bar piano.

“Jason… The Dragon” is thus a manageable collection of heavy Southern grit that is sure to become more and more interesting depending on the amount of substances you have in your system. It may not offer much that’s new to sludge fans, but considering that sludge is a subgenre that favors authenticity and tradition even more than originality, that may not be a bad thing. In addition, I believe that Weedeater, along with groups such as High on Fire, is a band that may prove vital to bridging the gap between Southern sludge and doom, per se, and the loose, Southern rock vibe that has become the cool thing to do in musical fields peripheral to metal.

Review for 'Jason… The Dragon'

Requested by nothingface0

Sludge

Doom / Sludge Metal

Vbr

61.28 MB

11 files

01/03/2011

Seed(s): 1, Leecher(s): 0 = 1 Peer(s)

08/06/2026 23:31:34