Dog Faced Gods is a 5-piece band based out of the San Manuel Reservation, halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Their new CD, Stoned Council will be out on August 9, but I was lucky enough to get a 3-song promo CD including the songs "Brings Me Down," "Desperately," and "Save Me."
"Brings Me Down" starts with a simple acoustic riff and with vocalist Raymond "Shorty" Galvan singing, dips into a spoken prechorus, then jumps right into a heavy chorus (yelling and singing combined). It's a well-constructed song with no big surprises, and is almost catchy enough to do well on radio. My only complaint about this song is a spoken vocal line that starts with "Look what you gone and did"... hey, what can I say, I'm a "grammar nazi"...
"Desperately" starts out with a burst of fuzzed guitar, then cuts to undistorted guitar, keyboard, and harmonized vocals, then transitions to distorted guiters (with an interesting wailing guitar in the background). All in all, a pleasant song with a hard edge; a good song to get the lighters going during a live show.
"Save Me" introduces itself with a heavy riff and a voice repeating the title in different styles. Then it drops into a Sabbath-like verse, and the rest of the song works itself out in a fairly Sabbath-like way as well (apart from the shouted chorus), which is a good thing in my book. Probably the most natural-sounding songwriting on the promo CD, although it has less dynamic range than the other two.
These songs show a more varied musical taste than many heavy bands getting radio play lately, with variations in tone, rhythms, vocal styles, and yes even some acoustic guitars. Production values are high, especially for a debut (in a couple of articles and on their website, bandmembers credit producer Bobby Brooks, who has also worked with POD and Zebrahead). Vocalist "Shorty" alters his vocal style from singing (with a voice not unline John Bush from Anthrax) to yelling to outright screaming without exposing any weaknesses, and the guitars (courtesy of David "Snakeyez" Torres) are solid throughout.
Most bands start out sounding pretty rough, and for hard rock/heavy metal bands the effect is usually more pronounced. But from what I've heard so far, Dog Faced Gods may have a leg up (is that a pun? sorry...), as these three songs suggest that Stoned Council could be an entertaining listen.
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