Reviewing Sohns: "Undrowned and Warded Out"

Sohns - "To Ward it Off and Drown it Out"
Review by James Woodard
photo courtesy of Josh Huskin

Anyone interested in the San Antonio music scene should be intimately acquainted with Sohns by now. They have dominated the heavy music scene here for at least two years. They have hit the road and proved themselves to be one of the best heavy bands in Texas, if not the entire region. And now that their debut full-length CD, "To Ward it Off and Drown it Out", has dropped, their dark cloud of rock and roll domination is sure to spread farther over the land.

Starting from the first few seconds into opening track "Let's Start a Cult", the album wastes no time in sonically assaulting you. Lawrence Mercado's drumming patterns build a tight framework for bassist Wes Dunn's angular, distorted lines, guitarist Marcos Garza's noisier, off the wall guitar attack, and vocalist Guillermo Mendez's piercing, schizophrenic howls and screams. The battery doesn't let up until a cool down period in the second song, "Pieces and Pieces and...", but this brief break only lasts a solid 40 seconds.

"Battlorches" begins with a fade-in, and kicks into gear full force, with Garza flexing some of his more bluesy and (not too) melodic guitar muscles. The trading off of vocal duties between Mendez and Garza in one of the verses is incredibly effective also, and is only utilized twice on the entire record, which makes me wish they took this approach more often.

Mid-record, the anthemic crowd pleaser "New Reasons" kicks in, giving listeners something to scream along to. One of the highlights of the record (and their live show), this track ramps up from the percussion and sing-along intro into a full-force rock and roll assault. Contrastingly, "Old Reasons" is a song you will probably never hear live, and gives the audience a much different perspective of the band. It is a cinematic, slow build; which, contrasted with the rest of the album, is quite an effective break from the unrelenting nature of the rest of the record.

This calm doesn't last forever, however, because the next track, "A Place Called Worship", once again, hits the ground running. "Holy Mouth", the album's standout track (critic's pick here, folks), is probably the darkest track on the album. Dunn's angular bass strategy really shines here, in the many rests and time signature changes. Equally effective is when the bottom drops out, and once again Garza and Mendez trade lyrical lines, "Do you wanna see the devil?" "Yeah i wanna see the devil!".

The record ends with "In Six Years..." which is sort of a misleading title, seeing that this is the oldest song on the record. OG Sohns fans will know this song by heart, and is a fitting coda for the record, because it is not only an old, time-tested track, but is also the archetypal Sohns track; unrelenting, pounding post-hardcore rhythms with maniacal vocals and intense, in-your face energy.

Sadly, shortly after finishing the album, guitarist Marcos Garza parted ways with the group, and has recently joined forces with Brother/Ghost alumni to create a new Austin-based project, God Townes. It will be interesting to see how Sohns holds up without one of it's key songwriters, but if I had to wager, I'd bet in the long run, San Antonio gets two amazing bands instead of one. Nevertheless, "To Ward it Off and Drown it Out" by Sohns is probably the best heavy record to ever come out of San Antonio, TX. Ever. Gauntlet thrown.

I'd give this album, on a scale of one to ten, a rating of a kitten purring on your lap, a Sega Genesis with six-button controller, and five large pepperoni pizzas with a 3-liter Pepsi.