Winnebago Deal - 'Dead Gone' (Double Dragon)
4/5
By: Toby L
We defy you to not enjoy Winnebago Deal, the inimitable, haemorrhage-inducing, two-person arsenal of sludge-punk noise from sleepy Oxfordshire.
Recorded in Seattle's Bearcreek Studios, there's a sense that the guitar-pummelling Ben and drum-spanking Ben (two twenty-something long-hairs with the same name? Right on) have somewhat lived up to the promise of a 'hard-hitting' debut-LP. Their 'Dead Gone' is a twelve-song orgy of tempestuous, stodgy heavy metal anthems, rasping, dirty and hideously aggressive - like a penniless student that's just had his week's allocation of White Lightning nicked by a chav in a cruel prank. Hell, the world could be ending while you listen, and you wouldn't be able to even hear it so much as crumble.
Largely composed of the releases/live-set staples that have marked the duo's previous 18 months of extensive venue-crumbling tour-schedules, 'DG' is a positively filthy, expansive insight into the warped minds of defected youth; stoners will dig it, as will lard-arses in trucker-caps that can't get a girlfriend. As well as anyone with an ear for a tune - because, yes, there is something in the water mildly beyond melodic. The terrorising riffage and velocity of 'Takin' Care Of Business' could soundtrack a car-chase in a Tarantino movie, 'Cobra' might cause you to wet your pants, and opener 'The Line-Up' is the most corrosive introduction to a record we've experienced in 2004 - all set to pulsing guitar-lines and a shuddering vocal that fail to halt. A one-trick pony, yes. But what a pony.
Add to this the frantic exhilaration of 'Knife Chase', or a thrillingly hedonistic 'Did It, Done It, Doing It Again' (hmm, maybe these titles are a bit of a give-away), and you've got a 12-song compilation of 'The Greatest Ever Anthems To Burn A House To, Volume 1'. Based on this pace, we don't doubt they've got it in them to continue the feat up at least 'til number 10 in the series. In which case, we won't be complaining (unless it's our gaff they're torching; little bastards).
Artists in this article: Winnebago Deal
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