Review: Deadly Vipers ‘Low City Drone’
I first cottoned on to the band Deadly Vipers around the time their 2017 debut Fueltronaut was released. Not too shabby, I thought at the time. Greasy desert stoner outta France with a hefty nod to Kyuss, which I highly doubt will offend the dudes in Deadly Vipers.
After the jangly and eloquent intro, the instrumental tune Echoes From The Wasteland launches with a big, ballsy riff and continues on in a similar fashion. Atom has a slinky, liquid guitar line that runs through the guts of the song and adds a cool counter hook to the melodies supplied by vocalist Fred.
Title tune Low City Drone sees it drop back and cool their heels for a moment or two with some dynamic interplay and Deadly Vipers signature riffage spilling out all over the place. The organ that insinuates itself into the backend of the song is a nice touch too, giving the song the hint of The Doors to break things up.
The dirty raunch ‘n’ roll of Welli Welloo caught my ear on the first listen. it has a frantic insistency to it. Hooky and powerful and with hefty doses of wah (also gonna win bonus points from me that way!). Fred punches the vox out a little harder on this one too. Meteor Part II has a busy and complex opening riff going on and slides around with some jazzy drumming and extra fuzzy bass mayhem to colour the dynamics.
he riffs are cranking, the playing is great, and the record sounds cool too…
Big Empty closes the show, a lumbering dirge with some pretty and gentle guitars providing the finishing ingredient, and some cool reverb effects to polish up the vocals. It’s a good song to finish with, in my opinion, and ends the long player with a heavily charged air of finality.
It’s fair to say Deadly Vipers channel their inner Spinal Tap in so far as all the Big Muffs go to 11. Indeed. But who doesn’t love excessive fuzztone? Low City Drone is a fairly natural progression from Fueltronaut, maybe a bit more refined, but still very much the same band.
They seem to operate from a fairly formulaic writing style, (not a criticism; just an observation and not a bad thing if it’s working) but the songs are good. The riffs are cranking, the playing is great, and the record sounds cool too. Meat and potatoes guitar, with some cool fill-in riffs tossed into the pan to fatten things up at the appropriate times, drums shot fulla ride, toms and at times cowbell, rolling basslines and some very good Garcia-esque (Garcesque?) vocals carry Low City Drone over the line.
Label: Fuzzorama Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: El Jefe
