Hangin' With Gideon

HAIL AND MIGHTY THANKS TO HELLRIDE MUSIC, JAY AND COMPANY FOR THIS REVIEW OF MY SIDE BAND CEMETERY CROWS, G

Cemetery Crows – Wolves of Desire Demo/EP (Hanuman Records)

“Anyone worth their weight in riffs ought to know darn well who Gideon Smith is. He, the mastermind behind the mighty Dixie Damned has carved out a career full of hard, heavy soulful rock with one excellent album after another. While Gid prepares himself for the next DD release, he’s kept busy with this utterly crushing, doom-born side project, Cemetery Crows. This trio fills the skies with overcast and brings the North Carolinian thunder, while showing an altogether different angle to Gideon’s songwriting that’s some of the heaviest turf he’s ever tread his boots upon.

Good lord man, the title track has a pure southern DOOM riff so heavy that not even Hercules himself could lift it off the ground. It’s a rumbling, rolling boulder played at a slovenly pace with ruthless Vitus/Sabbath groove eroded and weathered by time and a windswept rhythm section. Gid holds down the low-end, refusing to stop the suffocation even if you beg as his vocals are a menacing, choking whisper from beyond the grave. Saul beats his drum kit into pieces while Salem’s guitar riffs are practically the soundtrack to a good witch burning. Jesus man…this stuff is heavy and it grinds ear canals into pulp with a sonic mortar n’ pestle the likes of which you will only find in the deep, dark south.

“Two Tygers Brightly” buries Smith’s growling vokills in echo, delay and phasing for a killer “I’ve just taken too many mushrooms” effect that creeps over a pachyderm heavy southern riff that buckles at the hips with big, bent bluesy notes and a sludgy rhythmic mudbath. Salem’s riffs start at the bottom of the valley and go on a vision quest up the side of Everest; always scaling, rappelling and reaching for that next blessed groove to bring down from the Heavens. This stuff lifts you up high but also instills massive feelings of paranoia and dismay in the fine tradition of Vitus, Sabbath, early Sour Vein and those first two Soulpreacher records.

That 4/4, classic doom/blues swing is festering in every inch of “Laying down the Hammer’s” begotten trudge. Instead of attempting to throw too many riffs at the listener at once and bog you down with duds, the Cemetery boys focus on a mere handful per track and here they let the desolate n’ decay seethe and build a mood that deliberately leads to a cathartic swinger where every note hit is a winner. Closer “Come Below” may very well be the best composition on hand with its burly, sunshine guitar/bass grooves in the vein of Bongzilla, Church of Misery and Turambar. These riffs are enough to topple Mt. Olympus and they just keep coming one after another. It’s that dirt doom sound I’ve loved for years and when done right I can’t ever get enough of it. Gid’s vocals are a creeped out narration, a tastefully imbedded scream/growl drowning in FX and never taking away from the glorious instrumental spirits conjured from the coffin.

You can get your bottom dollar if Gideon Smith has his hands in a project the results are going to be solid gold. Cemetery Crows are no exception to that rule. This is the ugliest, nastiest stuff I’ve ever heard him get down on and there is something seriously freaky and psychedelic about the way him n’ the boys get down on Wolves of Desire. Not only should this tide over fans (such as myself) rabidly awaiting new Dixie Damned material but Cemetery Crows stands tall and proud as its own thing, and I sure as hell hope we hear more from this line-up in the future!” - Jay Snyder, Hellridemusic.com

(Photo copyright 2015)

The great artist my friend Riddick jumped in this week and created a logo.. Really awesome work and we love it as always..Thanks brother..

Visit the Cemetery Crows Reverbnation website at https://www.reverbnation.com/cemeterycrows