Music review: Leak - God Hates the South (1997)

Yet another NOLA sludge review, I'll soon have finished exploring the worthwhile part of that arguably small scene. This one is kinda special because of its history: it's a 2024 reissue (with altered track list) of an obscure, self-released 1997 cassette. In between Shrüm and the elusive Slaves of Freedom on the Indiana Jones archeology scale.

The sound is very simple to describe: take the smoky southern sludge of Down, add the abrasive mania of Acid Bath and finally the groove of early Crowbar and there you go! I should also mention that they avoid most of the negativity associated with bands like Eyehategod, Buzzov•en or Grief.

Where they truly excel is not in the personality or creativity department, but the execution one:

• The vocalist is capable of the same "mental asylum" delivery as Acid Bath's Dax Riggs but also his grungy crooning! Juicy.
• Riff quality, quantity and variety is seriously comparable to Crowbar's s/t.
• The amateur production and sound (pretty sure the cassette was used as source) suits it perfectly, strongly smoothing the high frequencies and neutralizing most of the harshness. The result goes down the ear like butter. Same reason why I prefer the sound of Acid Bath's demos to their first LP.

It's near perfect, with all the fat trimmed off before wrapping the final 35 minutes package. A very important thing since it does get a little samey.