AMG Review of Nothing That a Bullet Couldn't Cure

Eduardo Rivadavia
All Music Guide

Vocalist Craig Riggs and guitarist Tim Catz didn't exactly set the world afire with their relatively undistinguished retro/stoner rock band, Roadsaw, but appear keen to finally leave their mark upon the music world with their new Southern rock-flavored outfit, Antler. The group's finely executed eponymous debut already hinted as much in 2004, and its 2006 follow-up, Nothing That a Bullet Couldn't Cure, duly confirms it, proffering what has to be some of the most earnest and authentic derivations of the Allmans and Skynyrds ever to emerge from the Beantown freeze. It ain't even as simple as copy-cattin', either; Antler rarely take the obvious routes with their songwriting, but traverse a very wide terrain across the Southern states along their journey. Horns, for instance, aren't something you'd immediately associate with the biggest names in Southern rock, yet they figure prominently in the first song here, "The Gentle Butcher." Likewise, Antler turn the astoundingly heavy "Black Eyed Stranger" into a forbidding funeral march that's arguably meaner than anyone but Blackfoot, and, on the gently grooving, organ-rich "Behind the Key," they sound like Radiohead before unleashing a searing guitar solo that the Brit-pop creeps would never dare touch. Additional standouts like "Deep in the Hole," "Frozen Over," and "My Favorite Enemy," though less prone to major surprises, boast chunky-sweet guitar riffs that Roadsaw certainly never conjured; rich, spot-on organ accompaniments they had no means of performing; and, in the case of "A Little Goes a Long Way," spectacular gang choruses to boot. Throw in a couple of slow-burning blues ballads in "Reminds Me of a Way" and "A River Underground" and Antler have themselves a sure-fire winner here. Good for them.