Anti-Mortem is a young five-piece band from Oklahoma, which has been raised on American Rock and Metal. Their humble beginnings rehearsing and playing live to friends and family in a barn has led to the big time, opening for bands such as Black Label Society, Killswitch Engage, and Five Finger Death Punch. They play the Download festival this month. New Southern is their debut album. The band consists of Larado Romo on Vocals, Zain Smith on Guitar, Nevada Romo on Guitar, Corey Henderson on Bass, and Levi Dickerson on Drums.

Let me say first of all that I love the artwork for the cover of this album, which has a skeleton Confederate soldier on a skeleton horse bearing down on two Yankie soldiers, in an obvious scene from the American Civil War. The band logo looks very nice, too. Anti-Mortem is described as Southern Rock fused with Metal, so I was expecting something like ZZ Top or Molly Hatchet, with Metal hooks or perhaps some rasping speed, but I would describe it very much as nineties American Stadium Rock, with the tiniest hint of Nu-Metal. There is no recognisable Southern Rock or Boogie style at all, so don’t be misled by the title or cover.

They are not a million miles away from a Metal version of Nickelback, but with much less melody and practically no light and shade. The first four songs are all mid-tempo, using pretty much the same riff, and I’m sorry to say are instantly forgettable. Track five, 'Black Heartbeat', owes a debt to Bon Jovi, at least in terms of style. It’s a sort of non-ballad if there is such a thing, and it reminded me of 'Wanted Dead or Alive'. 'I Get Along With the Devil' is one of those angry Nu-Metal songs wherein it seems there has to be as much bad language as possible to perhaps impress their fellow youngsters – and I’m no prude.

'Wake Up' is the closest I came to relating to a musical structure. There is a proper verse and chorus which you can grab onto and return to. 'Ride of Your Life' has the best opening of the bunch, and I briefly wondered why they hadn’t opened the album with it. It has a nice little melody, but as soon as the vocals begin the guitars return to that chunky chugging which accompanies every song. It’s rather ironic that the most different and pleasing song for me is the bonus track, 'A Little Too Loose'.

Admittedly I’m not a real fan of American Metal (Rock bands like Blue Oyster Cult, ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughan, etc. – yes), and, although I love many sub-genres of Metal, I have never been able to get on with Nu-Metal. I have to say, I’m disappointed, and that’s probably because I was expecting so much. The band photo looks cool and so does the cover; but you should never judge a book by the cover. I was expecting the next Molly Hatchet album. Any band, particularly a new one, needs to be drastically different in some way, or at least have a member with a lot of charisma. Apparently, Anti-Mortem has already written over a hundred songs; with that in mind, I was expecting the ones on the album to be stronger.

5

Ty Power