These have given me more joy in the last few days than is probably sane and healthy for an adult to get from a couple of new songs. But what’s sane and healthy about 2020 anyway? I’ll take what I can get.
When I did my best of the decade list back in January, I said that if there was one band that broke up in the 2010s that I could have another album from, it would be Anti-Mortem. I don’t know if we’ll actually get another album, but this is a damned good start.
The Oklahoma rockers stormed onto the worldwide metal scene with the 2014 release of their Nuclear Blast debut New Southern. If I had tried to tackle the impossible task of ranking my best of the decade list by number, it would have made the top 10. New Southern hit all the right notes for me: It had huge hard-rock hooks; it had a strutting Southern flavor; it had thrash ferocity and it had tons of swagger and attitude.
In 2020, almost every song on the album still gets a crank of the volume knob when it comes on, and some like “Path to Pain” or “Stagnant Water” still push the speakers to the point of blowing. It landed at No. 2 on my Top 10 list for that year, behind only Judas Priest’s Redeemer of Souls. In hindsight, I would put it at No. 1. There’s way more New Southern than Redeemer in my playlist these days.
And then they were gone. Before 2014 was over, the band announced they were going their separate ways.
The Romo brothers, vocalist Larado and guitarist Nevada, decided they wanted to do some different things and explore new styles, though both eventually ended up in Texas Hippie Coalition, which isn’t all that far removed from what Anti-Mortem was doing. Guitarist Zain Smith went on to form Locust Grove, which is a solid band with a similar vibe to Anti-Mortem, but lacking some of the punch and Larado’s distinctive voice. So, fans were left to enjoy one record and ponder what could have been.
Granted, this new version of Anti-Mortem is not the same band that recorded New Southern. The Romo brothers have surrounded themselves with new faces, but at least in these first two songs, the fire is still there.
In fairness, the first song, “Old Washita,” isn’t exactly new. You can find old YouTube videos of the Romos playing it acoustically with Smith. I’m not sure if it was a leftover from New Southern or if it was something written for the follow-up that never happened. Either way, it would have been right at home on that album. It’s got the Western movie feel of “Stagnant Water” and all of the groove and hooks that I loved about the band.
The song also tells an appropriately Western-themed story about a man wronged three times by a preacher’s son. The third time, of course is “the charm” as Larado Romo sings, and the resulting body ends up being disposed of from the Washita Bridge. It’s another blaster of a song that my family is probably already tired of hearing, but they’d better get used to it because “Old Washita” is not going anywhere any time soon.
The gift, though, is “STFU.” With this single, Anti-Mortem has given me my anthem for 2020. The song itself is quite a bit different from “Old Washita”: “STFU” breaks from the groove and Southern sound to go a little heavier and angrier, appropriate to the lyrics. If there’s a comparison to be made from New Southern, it would probably be “100% Pure American Rage,” which had a bit more heft than the rest of the material. There’s just a hint of an industrial influence on the tune and they experiment a bit with vocal melodies, but it’s still definitely Anti-Mortem.
“STFU” isn’t the catchiest song in Anti-Mortem’s small catalog, but it perfectly encapsulates the world we find ourselves in right now – a world where seemingly everyone wants to fight bitterly and unrelentingly about literally everything. In a time where everyone seems to have chosen a side and drawn battle lines, Larado Romo cuts across them with a scream as he sums up what I know I’m feeling, and I’m betting a lot of others are, too: “You don’t have to see my side / You don’t have to apologize / You don’t get to live my life / This is mine / JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
I’m not saying they’re qualified for any sort of humanitarian award here, but we’d probably be in a lot better place if more people would take that advice.
Whether something bigger grows out of these couple of songs, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. So far, I haven’t seen any mention of a full record, but 10 or 12 new songs from Anti-Mortem would certainly send 2020 out on at least one good note – or start 2021 off in the right way. So come on guys, I’m counting on you.
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