10

A band improving with every new release.

We've always been big followers of God Damn over the years, shouting in your face whenever they released any new music, etc. so our own anticipation for this album was already very high. With the level of hype that began to swirl and circle around them towards the end of their last touring cycle it was important for God Damn to come back with new music that could help sustain this and even try and take them that one step further. Everything Ever is the band's third full studio release in a short career which has also included the odd EP here and there. They've never really deviated from the sound which has made them popular - scuzzy Garage Rock with eclectic spurious moments designed to challenge you as a listener. You need only see this band live to see that they absolutely ooze passion for their craft and couldn't give too much of a shit whether you like them or not. They simply turn up, Rock out, and hang with you at the bar afterwards like nothing had happened.

With the new record, they've certainly maintained all of the elements consistent with their previous output, but they've also managed to make a catchier, slightly more diverse, collection of tracks. We're sure you just read that and sighed as passionately as a morning commuter on the tube but trust us, this isn't a band who have discarded their heavier edge in a bid to hit the mainstream, rather they've melded it in to some really interesting sounding music.

You give any God Damn record to someone who's never heard of them before and immediately they'll quote Nirvana as one of the band's main influences. Nirvana were the masters at making heavy tracks poppy and catchy and if God Damn are going to follow that lead then we're always going to be on board. There have been glimpses of this in the past and interestingly, it's in the opening few tracks where you'll find the more "singles" type tracks, with Ghost and Again Again being songs that will be planted firmly in your head when you turn the album off. In the latter part of the album, the band's heavier side is a lot more prominent, with the robotic Six Wires and Dead To Me sounding like early Queens Of The Stone Age or Eagles Of Death Metal. We then reach the absolute buried gem on the album in Violence which is a heavy riff laden straight up Doom Metal track.

Overall then, God Damn have consciously rode on the momentum and success borne out of the tour around Vultures last year and not hesitated with getting another new record out as quickly as possible. A lot of bands would falter in this haste, but looking at Everything Ever as a full collection of songs, this may be their best album to date. We're interested to see where they're headed next.