Weedeater is back in Savannah to rattle the walls of El Rocko with their brand of 'cave metal'

“I sat around and drank some bourbon, and as soon as I could get into our local water parks, I rode waterslides everyday, and that’s about it,” said Collins.

Collins co-founded Weedeater with guitarist Dave “Shep” Shepard in 1998 in Wilmington, North Carolina. With albums like “...and Justice for Y’All” (2001), “God Luck and Good Speed” (2007) and “Goliathan” (2015), Weedeater have become beloved representatives of the Southern brand of bowel-rumbling metal.

Sure, many of Weedeater’s songs are about, and inspired by, the devil’s lettuce, but Collins refers to his music as cave metal, as opposed to stoner metal.

“When the moniker of stoner rock and stoner metal came out, especially stoner rock, I was like, ‘Well, how many have rocked that were stoned?’,” Collins explained. “I guess Louie Armstrong could be stoner rock, in my opinion. I just felt that that moniker was thrown around so much, it really covered a wide range of stuff. I just didn’t want to be pigeonholed in that. If I was going to be, we might as well come up with our own thing. For a while I said ‘weed metal’ and eventually then ‘cave metal.’ That’s basically what we’re doing anyway. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything, it’s not that technical.

“Our uptempo shit is mid tempo.”

Weedeater are no strangers to Savannah and have been performing here regularly for years. The South seems to breed a certain type of heavy music, and Weedeater created a kinship with the sludgy metal scene that emerged from Savannah’s own marshes like Baroness, Kylesa, and Black Tusk.

“I love Savannah,” said Collins of the band’s return. “It’s very similar to where I live in the Cape Fear area. We’ve got a lot of friends there. The Black Tusk boys are good friends of ours. We’ve always had a really good time there.”

Collins added, “Back in the day when I was in Buzzov•en we used to play Velvet Elvis which eventually became the Jinx. It feels very much like home.”

With several monolithic albums produced by renowned industry veterans Billy Anderson and Steve Albini, Weedeater hope to record another after their tour is over. The hope is to get back into the studio with either Anderson or Albini, who are the best in the biz at capturing Weedeater’s sound, which can be as heavy as a caveman’s club.

Collin’s gave some insight into how they develop their sound.

“Me and Shepard get together and we write stuff pretty much on the porch on acoustic bass and acoustic guitar, and if you write slower or mid tempo heavy stuff on acoustic guitar and it sounds heavy then when you get out to the band space and plug it into monstrous amps it’s definitely going to sound heavy. That’s pretty much how we go about it.”

Then when Collins gets on stage, he adjusts his amp accordingly.

“Turn everything up, except for the treble all the way down,” said Collins.

Joining Weedeater on the eclectic Aura Fest bill are Arkansas singer/songwriter Adam Faucett, punk/country singer Joe Buck Yourself, and Savannah metallers Sins of Godless Men.

The event includes drink specials and prize giveaways. Limited VIP tickets include an AURA Fest T-Shirt, Koozie, and Event Poster.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Weedeater is back in Savannah to rattle the walls of El Rocko with their brand of 'cave metal'