Weedeater - God luck and good speed

With tenuous exuberance and sonic feedback abound in mythically gigantic proportions; Weedeater fills the conical basket of each speaker and lays waste to their audible surroundings with their clinical precision and fuzz bass stylings - beyond the comfort you will find your desolate wasteland being delivered in due time.   Weedeater are a stoner metal band formed in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1998. The band has released four full length albums and recorded their fifth album in September 2014.

The band formed in 1998 and was initially planned to be the side-project of Dave "Dixie" Collins, the band's vocalist and bassist who was occupied with his primary project Buzzoven, however the band disbanded the same year so decided to concentrate his efforts on Weedeater and made it his new primary project, recruiting members Dave "Shep" Shepherd on guitar and Keith "Keko" Kirkum on drums.

The band released their debut album titled ... And Justice for Y'all in 2001 and released their second album Sixteen Tons in 2003, both albums where released via their first record label Berserker Records.

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After the release of Sixteen Tons in 2003, the band decided to leave Berserker Records and joined American metal record label Southern Lord Records and released their third album and label debut God Luck and Good Speed.   In 2009 a deluxe double LP version on the album was also released. The band was also announced as a support act for the American heavy metal supergroup Down.  The band was later announced as one of the acts to play at 2010's Hellfest among the likes of Arch Enemy, Architects and Gwar.

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The album was finally released on March 15 2011 after all the setbacks caused by the bands injuries throughout 2010. The band went on tour in the US to support the release of the album however had to cancel the last few shows due to Dave Shepherd breaking his hand which disallowed him to play guitar.

In November 2013 it was announced by French record label Season of Mist had officially listed Weedeater as part of their roster, and along with the announcement the label re-released all of the band's previous albums digitally on December 10 the same year, the band also commented that they will hopefully be entering the studio soon with either producer Steve Albini or Billy Anderson who they have helped produce the band's previous albums.  Travis Owen joined the band as drummer and they are scheduled to record their newest album in September of 2014 with Steve Albini in Chicago, IL.
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With all the biography and history of Weedeater they are comfortable to find their niche within a vacuum and develop their twisted brand of sludge stoner metal amongst few that successfully challenge them in their own arena.  Nearly five years after their second CD, the underrated Sixteen Tons, was unexpectedly met with a few industry sighs as the modest decline in sludge stoner metal popularity began, the members of North Carolina's Weedeater inclusively returned to their Southern Roots with the aptly named  Southern Lord label, and with duty abound they broke conditional parameters with a hell of a comeback album.

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2007's God Luck and Good Speed is the epitome of the traditional burning, iron smelting, hash bubbling greasy deep melodies bursting with coarse, crusty, stoner sludgecore aromatic overtones of the highest market value.  The album winds into it's opening onslaught with "God Luck and Good Speed", with an introduction like this few are left standing and able to carry on but those in a smoke induced stupor.  Heavily beating the listener with a melodically sinister, yet passive audiometric abuse, the only repent is with the gravelly vocals of one "Dixie" Dave Collins.  This becomes immediately apparent on the album's impressive opening triple threat -- the earth-shaking, hell driven grooves of the title track, the uproarious speed-blast of "Wizard Fight," and the maniacally driven laughs of "For Evan's Sake" -- all of which surf on surging waves of feedback, their tendrils forming dirty electric causeways for an extended, uninterrupted buzz. Then suddenly, all is quiet for the one-off austerity of "Alone," featuring only a banjo, an acoustic bass, and vocalist "Dixie" Dave Collins replacing his trademark croak with a drunken baritone à la Tom Waits, stinking drunk out on the bayou.  ​

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The visceral volumized punishment and viscosity of Weedeater's brand coupled with the steady distortion are only lightly tempered by subsequent aural bulldozers like the instrumental "$20 Peanut," the doomy but somewhat dull "Dirt Merchant," and the oddly named epic "Weed Monkey" (all interlocked by even more feedback, naturally). And to emphasize their sub-Mason Dixon line allegiance, Weedeater deliver an aptly sludge-encrusted cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Back My Bullets" as sung by Swamp Thing. Final verdict? The wait was worth it: God Luck and Good Speed is definitely some of Weedeater's strongest stuff yet.

If you're looking for something in the vein of "untapped & unusual" you've most certainly hit your mark with Weedeater.  These men like warriors are epic in stage presence and personae, they embody the metal lifestyle and choice accompaniments.  Within Weedeater are the raw elements through which formulate the superhero musical acts; these men are all about blood, sweat and tears - they walk as they talk, speak it like it needs to be said, and never look back with any degree of regret - living only each day with healthy abandon for sound reason and decisiveness.
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Get you some Weedeater! - God Luck and Good Speed!

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