Before you press play, be prepared. This album starts with a fucking bang with "Black Tongue" and doesn't really give up. The Hunter (Reprise 2011) is the group's fifth studio release and maintains a firm grasp on the listener's attention throughout.
The band admitted that this is a little more "stripped down" than many of their past recordings. That may be so, but the result is still very crisp and complex with air-tight instrumentation and vocals that range from ghostly and haunting to violently raw.
Track two, "Curl of the Burl," which was released as a single and features an incredibly bizarre music video, is a pretty decent track but is probably the weakest on the album. Fortunately it kicks back into high gear with "Blasteroid" that has lead singer/bassist Troy Sanders quite literally screaming for blood.
It's incredibly difficult to pick favorites off of this album. There is great diversity here, and the fast and thrashing is balanced perfectly with the slow, distorted grooves on songs like "Stargasm" and "All the Heavy Lifting." There is even a touch of sing-along quality later on with "Creature Lives," which sounds somewhere between Ringo Starr and Slayer.
The group has the kind of fun with their music/lyrics on this album that they've become known for. Time signatures shift constantly and there are titles like "Octopus Has No Friends" and "Bedazzled Fingernails." The latter being a truly exceptional tune.
The Hunter is layered and complex. Even the stiffest neck will be unable to resist banging to the variety of different tempos contained within. You can download it here.
No comments:
Post a Comment