On the radar: God Damn
Grunge worshippers with monstrous fuzz
On first listen, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Wolverhampton's God Damn - possibly the grungiest band in Britain - were spawned from some sort of rancid hell pit (no hometown jokes, please). Instead, it's the product of two ex-indie kids, Thom Edwards and Ash Weaver.
After the bass player from their prior band split, God Damn was the warped result. "[At that point] we'd had emails from major labels and we were going along doing what people were telling us to do," explains Thom. "We thought, 'Let's start a band where we just do what we want to do all of the time' - that just happened to be the heaviest fucking thing we could think of."
Gibsons, Oranges and more
A record deal followed, as will debut album, Vultures, on 11 May. We've heard it and it's imbued with stonking filthy riffs that, live, Thom conjures through his Gibson SG and a combination of a trio of Orange heads, including his 90s OTR120, 70s OR120 and a fresh-off-the-line OB1 bass head. Then there's some clever splitting, a DigiTech Whammy DT and looper, and a Way Huge Swollen Pickle involved.
"There's also a company in Scotland called Gojira FX that I should shout out," says Thom. "He's made me some crazy fuzzes. Most of the fuzzes on the album are his. He's got this crazy Mangler pedal - imagine two Fuzz Factory pedals put together. It's that insane!"
We'd say it sounds like a match made in, er, hell.
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Matt is a freelance journalist who has spent the last decade interviewing musicians for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.