Published on Aug 6, 1999
I know it has to drive some bands bonkers to have their
hard-earned work compared to other groups who have been around,
even for only a short time. Sometimes, the comparison is not
flattering; other times, it’s meant as a high compliment.
Take Atlanta-based Doubledrive, for instance. Their sound
reminds me a lot of Creed, only with a harder edge to their music.
Their debut album
1000 Yard Stare (to be released August 17th) should take the
rock scene by storm – and you might find this one hard to take out
of the CD player.
The band – vocalist/guitarist Donnie Ray Hamby, guitarist Troy
MxLawhorn, bassist Joshua Sattler and drummer Mike Froedge – pack
an immense sonic whallop that can be heard almost from the outset
of this album. My advance copy doesn’t tell me who produced this
gem (and I don’t seem to have the bio handy – I’m a little bit
behind sorting them), but they pull an absolutely brilliant sound
out. Froedge’s drums are the crispest sounding instances of trap
work I’ve heard in years.
Thrilling, you say, he’s impressed with the drum sound. How’s
about the rest of the music? Patience, grasshopper, we’re getting
to that. Doubledrive seems to have already mastered the art of
songwriting, with tracks such as “Dressed In Light,” “Tattooed
Bruise,” “Hell” and the title track all shining brightly on this
disc. It sometimes seems impossible that a four-piece is wringing
all this sound out of their instruments, but they are indeed.
Simply put, it’s a tour de force.
Oh, it’s not that there aren’t one or two speed bumps along the
way (I wasn’t impressed with “Vamp,” for instance – too slow for my
tastes), but
1000 Yard Stare is the kind of album that makes you forget
most of the minor mistakes very quickly. And, seeing that this is a
very young band, it makes me think that they haven’t yet reached
the pinnacle of their talent or success.
All this said, there is one thing about
1000 Yard Stare that is incredibly annoying. The final
track, a cover of Wall Of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio,” is hidden by
some 70-plus tracks featuring five seconds of silence. I don’t have
that much free time to piss away, and it would have been better to
just have the damn song play right after “Standby” finished. (I
swear, the next record company executive who okays this stupid
stunt, I’m going to strangle them with my bare hands.)
It has been said that Doubledrive’s live show is absolutely
incredible. If this is true, it should take the material on
1000 Yard Stare and make it that much better. For now,
though, this is a powerful enough product to keep me occupied for a
while. If you like Creed or bands of that ilk, you’ll want to be
waiting outside the doors of Best Buy when this sucker is
released.