Dark Meat and the Universal Indians

by Paul POP! First Coast News

Officially the worst band name ever, Dark Meat sounds like a Thanksgiving Day Turkey nightmare as opposed to a hip happening band. But, despite the really horrible name, Dark Meat are actually a very cool, very interesting band who play rock n' roll the way it was meant to be played; dirty, dangerous, and recklessly good.

Their album, Universal Indians is the craziest most chaotic record to ever come out of Athens, Georgia and quite possibly the world. It's hard to actually figure out what Darkmeat sounds like but about the closest thing would be the Polyphonic Spree drunk on about 30 cases of Jack Daniels in a bar fight with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Universal Indians is one of the noisiest rambunctious recordings by a band ever and I guess that's to be expected when there are over 20 people in your band doing 50 different things at once. With that many people and just about every possible instrument ever, including a beer can, making appearance it's easy to see why this record is the sound of chaos. To be honest, all that bedlam is what makes this record so interesting. It is disorganized insanity that somehow manages to take the shape and form of rock and roll that works. It's a complete tornado of sound that roars through your ears and will probably give you a headache but in a good and most pleasing way.

From the epic disarray of "Freedom Ritual," to the almost calm restraint of, "Angel of Meth," Dark Meat refuses to be corralled and has no qualms about being rude, disordered, or even nihilistic because that's what rock and roll is all about. That being said Universal Indians could very well be the greatest threatening muddled masterpiece to ever come out of Georgia.

They might have one of the worst names ever but they have one of the most dangerous records to ever be labeled rock and roll and that's never a bad thing.