Dead Confederate

Coming from Athens Georgia Dead Confederate have a huge and proud legacy to uphold with literally dozens of great bands having called it home over the years. Luckily they are a fine band and ‘Sugar’ is a terrific way to follow up ‘Wrecking Ball’, their first album.

Their music is dark and weighty but they have a lightness of touch tham means that the music bears repeated listening – John Agnello has done a good job here – and they have a lot of different sounds to make ranging from the faintly deranged ‘In The Dark’ with its massive drum beats and off-kilter guitar sounds through the anti-war ‘’Run From The Gun’ which has an almost Oasis-like swing to it, a real live Mellotron and a great vocal from Ben Wigle to the brooding and dense title track and into the doom-laden and ominous tones of ‘Shocked To Breathe’.
Standout track is probably ‘Quiet Kid’ which doesn’t just grab the ears so much as throw you around the room ny them and deliver a growling and pounding threat for all its 4 minutes.

They have been touring with bands like Dinosaur Jr (J. Mascis appears on ‘Giving It All Away’) and they have certainly picked up a lot of new elements to their sound without losing sight of the teamwork that makes them such a strong live act.

This is an album that grows on you the more that you listen to it – little things that you missed last time out grab your attention and keep making the album sound fresh and original.
On this showing Dead Confederate will only grow and add to the legacy of R.E.M, B-52’s, Georgia Satellites and The Drive By Truckers.