THEIR RAW SOUND EXEMPLIFIES THE ESSENCE OF BLUES-ROCK” – TIMEOFF
Sweet Misery: The highly anticipated long player from the guitar/drums two piece The Blackwater Fever. 13 tracks of garage blues, alt-country, murder ballads and four on floor rock n’ roll, with appearances by Steve Merry (The Fumes), Alex Archer (The Kill Devil Hills) and crunk soloist Red Ghost all putting their mark on this potent, multi-layered release.

“A DYNAMIC DUO OF POWERHOUSE BLUES” – FASTERLOUDER
A harrowing growl, a tortured electric guitar and the rhythmic stomp of an unrelenting drum kit. If you close your eyes you can almost smell the swamp and feel the moonlight on your face. It’s hard to believe such an atmospheric, blues-heavy sound comes from just two guys. Breaking your heart one minute only to pick you up with an irresistible rocker the next, this Brisbane-based duo are a live experience not to be missed.

SWEET MISERY
P1-20 | Released Nov 8th 2008
2008 | Buy Now | LISTEN NOW

 

LOVESICK (promo)

BETTER OFF DEAD
Live @ The Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane Supporting The Black Keys 17/06/08

DEVOUR
Live @ The Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane Supporting The Black Keys 17/06/08

Website: theblackwaterfever.com
MySpace: myspace.com/theblackwaterfever
YouTube: youtube.com/theblackwaterfever

Email Address: info@theblackwaterfever.com
Bookings: David Dean david@hostileentertainment.com
Management: Peter Townson management@theblackwaterfever.com

REVIEWS
Time Off Magazine
THE BLACKWATER FEVER – Sweet Misery (Plus One Records/Shock)
Brisbane’s own The Blackwater Fever are, unfortunately, always going to be a target for the Two-Piece Backlash – pretty much every duo since The White Stripes has had to deal with the stigma of not coming up with the one-guitar-vocals-drums first. Big whoop. Fact of the matter is two-pieces have to work harder than their larger counterparts to be both engaging for a crowd and to flesh out their songs, and Blackwater handle these tasks with bombast and aplomb. Kicking off with a Lanegan-esque intro before launching into thundering theme song ‘Blackwater’, Sweet Misery’s most obvious strong points are both its energy and gritty-yet-perfect production, while vocalist/guitar man Shane Hicks has a throaty roar and a guitar tone that’d make The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach shit. ‘Good Night Darling, Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Better Off Dead’ prove the fellas can handle the sultrier end of blues, as well as showing off Andrew Walter’s seismic drumming. The title track crops up at the end of “Side A”; a haunting country-flavoured tune laced with violin and wandering boldly into 16 Horsepower territory, before the second half of the album begins with a spaghetti western instrumental. And then it’s off again into the storm of floor tom beats that is ‘Lovesick’. Across much of the album there’s a dark river of vitriolic rock’n'roll; when it lets up for the sensitive stuff, such as ‘Red’, the grit doesn’t fade away, nor does Hicks’ voice fail to measure up. Forget preconceived ideas about what two people in a rock band can achieve: Sweet Misery can bury albums by bands with three times as many members. Rock’n'roll at its best.
4½ – 5 TAL WALLACE

Tsunami Magazine
THE BLACKWATER FEVER – Sweet Misery (Plus One Records/Shock)
Too often, the blues is wheeled out like a dusty old museum piece. Someone, often a genteel white guy, will don a guitar, play a twelve bar progression with a technically proficient blues-wank solo, and say, ‘Look, this is where rock ‘n’ roll came from’. Often that person’s name is Eric Clapton, and he will say, ‘I was in Cream, remember; I used to be God’. But what the Claptons of the world forget is that blues is all about atmosphere and raw passion, and Tsunami favourites The Blackwater Fever have nailed both on their debut longplayer. With its vinyl crackle and staticy interjections of preachers and the like, ‘Sweet Misery’ sounds like The Blackwater Fever have trawled the mythic swamps of the Mississippi to find the music’s primordial essence, filtered it through a sieve of the Fat Possum Records back catalogue, and cooked it all up on an alternative rock griddle to create something that is truly their own. ‘Sweet Misery’ is that rarest of things: a tough, passionate garage blues album that is satisfying from beginning to end even after the umpteenth listen, with barnstorming rockers like ‘Blackwater’ and ‘Lovesick’ working perfectly alongside sludgy lurchers like ‘Good Night Darling, Sweet Dreams’ and the brooding slow-burn of the title track. It’s a song typical of the rough edges and simmering ambience of the album, as Shane Hicks’s gruff voice and guitar-picking ride Andrew Walter’s slithering cymbal rolls and the violin rasp of guest player Alex Archer (Kill Devil Hills) into a sweat-drenched, malarial dream of fuzzy guitar and elemental rhythms. The Blackwater Fever have seen where the blues began, they know where it’s been, and because they treat it like the breathing, dangerously-alive entity that it is, they are also part of where it’s going.
9/10 STROM

Scene Magazine
THE BLACKWATER FEVER – Sweet Misery (Plus One Records/Shock)
Not for a while has an album title summed up the content so well. I always wondered if two-piece bands are only two-piece bands they have no other friends, but really, Brisbane boys The Blackwater Fever don’t need any other friends. And don’t be expecting no White Stripes imitation – this is dirty swamp slide-guitar blues, growling and barking at you, trying to bite your hand off as Shane Hicks warbles with a distinct Eddie Vedder vibe. You should be sweating heavily and drinking JD when you listen to this. I’m going to grab my twelve-bore and shoot me some alligators.
SKD Rave Magazine

THE BLACKWATER FEVER – Sweet Misery (Plus One Records/Shock)
A fair bit of sound coming from two blokes!
Local gents Shane Hicks and Andrew Walter are in keeping with the very popular roots music set-up of the last 10 years or so, operating as a guitar/drums power blues duo. Guitarist Hicks is also a suitably gravelly vocalist, while drummer Walters can lay down everything from old-fashioned garage kit thrashing to more minimalist, skeletal rhythms for the album’s darker, slower tracks. And, yes, if you like Black Keys, there are enough raw blues rock numbers to keep you satiated – so that’s a fuzz pedal tick of approval for Blackwater, Crawlin’ Skin and the barnstorming Lovesick. They are similarly adept at slower jams, like the churning Good Night Darling Sweet Dreams and the gothic, cello-enhanced ballad Sweet Misery. And while fans of other immensely successful two-piece roots rock outfits will find much to love here, The Blackwater Fever also possess an impressive sonic fullness, a dramatic cinematic sweep and even a dose of glam rock stomp to create what is ultimately a sound all their own.
3½ – 5 MATT THROWER