I do not claim to know how most bands form. In the case of Georgia's
Drag the Waters, I would imagine that it would be liek this: "Let's form
a band that plays metalcore that sounds the same as other bands, name
ourselves after a Pantera song, and release it on our own record label."
Much of that is pure exaggeration on my part, but you can see where I'm
about to go with the album they put out called Fulci Film
Commentary.
Before I start off on the music, it should be made clear that despite
the album title, there is no commentary on any of Italian horror
director Lucio Fulci's films, which is too bad because it would have been far
more entertaining than what Drag the Waters has to offer. Five tracks
of paint by numbers metalcore, complete with topics typical of the
genre. Most of the riffs seem to sound similar to those of In Flames and
Meshuggah repacakged and the vocals do nothing to add to the mess. Drag
the Waters don't even try to experiment with things that could help
distinguish itself even a little bit, which could set off some accusations
of dare I say, riding the coattails of the more famous people and
bands. The only real highlight of the album I could find is the sound
samples from the horror films they use before Benumbed and Without a Trace.
Sadly, those last only seconds before the listener is blasted back into
boredom.
Just because you're named after a song by a well-known band and even
use the name of a famous horror director in the album title doesn't
always guarantee success. Drag the Waters has a long way to go if it wants
to even live up to half of the afformentioned Pantera's success. Even
touring with a band such as Mastodon shouldn't be considered a
measuring stick for future success. Maybe the album title does kind of fit the
band's sound after all; unfortunately, it's more of a reference to
Fulci's much later works that completely bombed.
