CD Review

The linear notes to Verbena’s latest release, La Musica Negra, display no flashy pictures of the band or neat lyrical stanzas. After your first listen to Verbena, you’ll come to understand why. This hard rocking trio from Birmingham, Alabama grabs the remnants that made the 90’s alternative movement so endearing and convincing. They allow the music to do the talking.

After their major label debut, Into the Pink, produced by Dave Grohl, the band has remarkably steered free of obvious influences and developed a sound that stands independent, as a raw mission that needs no comparisons. Although grounded in their delta roots, the band can rest their laurels on the sunset strip as a safe haven for their brand of hard rock. From the opener “Way Out West,” which summons the left coast as a mythical place, the band aggressively matches the delta blues with boogie metal riffs and shades of punk that infuse a fresh slap in the face. With lyrics uniquely deep in Jesus, devils, sex, saints and sinners, perhaps we’ve found the real Doors of the 21st Century.

Lead singer/guitarist Scott Bondy has a voice made for front and center, one that conveys raw emotion with stylish self-assurance; along with raw power chord excitability on the six-string. From the sullen Nirvanaesque “Rememberer” to the twirl the microphone ferocity of “White Grrls,” Bondy keeps things consistently interesting and ass-kicking. Molding accessible harmonies with relentless guitar rock is certainly a sketchy compromise, but Verbena pulls it off with gritty righteousness.