God Damn is a 3-piece noise band from Wolverhampton who make, according to the press release, “rock music for degenerates”. After listening to the new single, which is more a 4-track EP, I can only come to the conclusion that I must be a degenerate person, as I really like what I’m hearing. The 4 tracks on this release are full of lots of heavy and filthy riffs, combined with plenty of melodic touches. And that is something I just love.
If I have to describe the music Thom (guitar/vocals), Dave (guitar/vocals) and Ash (drums) make in more detail, I think I’ll come up with something like filthy bluesy grunge guitar noise rock metal, because I find all these genres back on this EP. Whilst listening to this release classic guitar noise bands such as Pissed Jeans, The Jesus Lizard and Melvins come to mind. There is not much new going on here, but God Damn does the job more than satisfactory.
The tracks all follow a fairly similar formula, with lots of distorted grunge guitar riffs, heavy, and sometimes nicely melodic bass lines, but all have their individual touches that make them stand out from each other. Thom and Dave share the vocal duties from one song to the other, which provides some nice change in the sound. Most of all, this EP is noisy and filthy, but also pleasantly catchy and slightly addictive. The songs are on the shorter side, no endless repeats of riffs, verses and choruses, which are totally unnecessary when writing a good pop song really.
The main single ‘I’m a Lazer, You’re a Radar’ kicks off with a nice up-tempo noisy drum beat and some heavy guitar riffing followed quickly with quite screaming vocals. The bass is adding a lot of nice touches by playing various higher melodic notes. Mid-way through the track there is a bit of a turn-around as it drops to a more down-tempo almost sludge-like riff in the chorus, with the singer repeatedly singing the line “I’m a lazer, you’re a radar”. Very catchy indeed and this song is a great single, which no doubt will do nicely on various alternative radio shows.
The next track ‘Fought in the Mirror’ is slightly longer (it hits the 3 minutes mark!), and changes singers and thereby demonstrates a lot more melody in the vocals, almost giving the impression Jello Biafra has joined the band. A nice little build up after around 1 minute is followed by a heavy, almost metal-like riff. The song ends with a minute more of heavy riffing after a deadly sounding scream by one of the vocalists. It really is good stuff.
In the next track ‘Dead on the Wall’ there is the short introduction of an organ whilst the main riff continues throughout the song, with various guitar and vocal parts providing the change in structure in this song. The chorus is catchy again, this time using a simple “Woohoohoo”.
We end this EP with the track ‘Double Negative’, which has a lot more slower elements and is pure metal if you ask me. It is melodic groove metal, again with those Jello Biafra sounding vocals. After a little breather we are thrown back into the heavy riffing with the singer shouting the lyrics “I got no soul, I got no soul” and “All I said and all I done is meant to freak out everyone”.
All in all, this nicely produced 4-track single release is a must have for any fan of noisy guitar grunge rock. You don’t need to be degenerate to be able to enjoy God Damn, but it sure helps you moshing away through your living room while you’re doing Beavis and Butthead styled air guitar playing stage dives of the sofa.
The single is a split label release through Distorted Tapes and Gravy Records and will be released on February 11th.
