This Brisbane trio’s 6th studio album is presented to the world as “dark, moody garage-rock” which sounds about right.
The Blackwater Fever started out in 2005 as a duo with Shane Hicks on vocals and guitar and Rick DeMarco on drums. From 2010 they added Jed A. Walters on bass guitar and keyboards. DeMarco and Walters has since been replaced by Trevor Gee and Sean Thomas.
The original template of Hicks was to create a “swampy bluesy sound” and this hasn’t fundamentally changed. Nothing here could be counted as innovative or original but the band ticks all the right boxes in terms of ten brooding songs with grungey riffs, gruff vocals and just the right sense of menace.
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In their vision The Highway frequently leads to hell and love is a drug not a cure. A murder ballad (Ode To Ol’John Doe) fits right into this world. The lyrics for My Weakness exemplify the tormented soul ethos: ”Cause I brood and I seethe/I lust and I feen/A love that’s pure unnatural/I can’t restrain myself no more.”
‘Temptator!’ provides further proof that the devil has all the best tunes.
Blackwater Fever’s website
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