The Devil’s Cut
Antium
(East Grand Record Co)
Like their name suggests, The Devil’s Cut are heavy on the goth influences. Their sound is a blend of the most obvious artists, with a heavy dose of twang. At various times on the album they channel Danzig, have doses of gothabilly and dark Americana heavy on the punk whoas.
Antium kicks off with a neat whistle intro, reminiscent of a spaghetti western soundtrack. It leads into a rockabilly track that sounds like a cast off Volbeat track. It’s ultra-cheesy and grating after the first listen. The nice thing about the album is that their sound is all over the place though. After the dismal intro track, “Fire in the Streets” is a welcome folk rock song that falls somewhere between Arliss Nancy’s barroom rock and Fire Next Time’s folk punk. It does lean a little too heavily on The Misfits sound in the middle, borrowing from Halloween. Tracks like “Sad Songs” show more of a country influence, bringing to mind Tiger Army and the million European rockabilly bands in the same vein. Right in the middle of the album lies “Western Medicine” and “Hurley Hospital,” which may be the most listenable songs on the release, again bringing to mind BJ Barham and band.
The level of enjoyment with this release will likely be tied directly to the level of worship that the listener feels for Glenn Danzig. If you are constantly making fun of him, then the overblown vocals on the majority of songs here should cause nausea. If you just can’t get enough of deep voices and dark themes, then this may be for you. On paper, a dark Americana album with spaghetti western overtones sounds fantastic, like something from a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. In reality, this sounds like a low budget version of a niche sound that has been excessively overdone. The Devil’s Cut are drawing inspiration from too many places on this disjointed debut. (Dustin Blumhagen)
