The Goddamn Electric – ‘Snake Bite’

This self-released debut album from Manchester-based four piece The Goddamn Electric – or GDE as they like to be abbreviated to – bears all the hallmarks of a band brimming with confidence, not afraid to take a myriad of influences, from classic metal through southern blues to even sleaze rock and funk, and mould them into their own distinctive sound.

Opener ‘Loyal To The Sinner’  starts off in very much traditional rock mien, and also hints at the variety of what is to come, with a punch-you-in-the-mouth bassline – indeed, Justin’s four string performance is a genuinely great one, switching from pure thumping boogie to southern-infused funk quicker than most guitarists can change pick-up – a slick geetar riff and a gravelly vocal from Tommy, whose performance is another which is highly effective throughout, by turns rattling out anthemic choruses intermingled with subtle blooze inflections.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM3l1hjGm5A]

The bumping, grinding ‘Morning Injection’ threatens to see the album peak early, while ‘Scarecrow’ is a guaranteed dancefloor filler (indeed, it did just that at PM’s affiliated Belfast club night just this past weekend).  The band take their foot off the pedal for the first time on ‘Jealous Contradiction’, a laconic southern drawl of a song, drawing on the heaviness of Clutch while at the same time echoing the bluesier moments of the likes of Cinderella:  it’s a mood which continues on the brooding ‘Something More’, which features a great slide guitar solo, before the quartet pick up the classic groove-infused metal riffs again on the punchy ‘Revive And Survive’.

The title track is another very bluesy number, again reminding very much of a Cinderella/Clutch crossover, mixed with dollops of both early Whitesnake and Pantera, while ‘Too Dirty’ is built on the sort of riff that would make latter period Poison blush with the embarrassment of not having thought of it themselves.  ‘Holding Me’ starts off lowly and slowly, punctuated with moments of fulfilling climaxes – which is a lot more than can be said for the needless outro track which kills off this otherwise well-rounded and impressive debut.

If you like your  rock with plenty of grit, determination and dirt under its fingernails, then you’ll be wanting to check out GDE.

8.5/10

Track list:

1. Loyal To The Sinner
2. Morning Injection
3. Scarecrow
4. Jealous Contradiction
5. Something More
6. Revive And Survive
7. Snake Bite
8. Too Dirty
9. Holding Me
10. San Francisco

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