Acid Head

It's time to sit back and turn up the volume on another LP review.The opening track, Take No Shit, throws power chord riffs into a mid tempo grind, bringing me back to the days of early Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and The Cows. With the fuzz overdrive of the guitars muffled through tube amps, the vocals hit a low, rock fashion. I even heard a little Hetfield influence in the choppy notes, and scratchy and melodic verses.

The 2nd track, Bleed, definitely sounds like something from the Jar of Flies sessions. A beautifully recorded song, it's tight and shows true structure. This is the type of structure that would be suitable for mainstream. The vocals are much less forced on this track, and the singers find a great balance with the key of the song. To my surprise, a beautiful synth breakdown appears with filtersweeps, arpreggiated noise and samples, before going back into a well played ( and not over flashy) guitar solo. This seems to be the strong point in the band's sound; it is acoustic but heavy and everyone seems to be comfortable in their surroundings. And it brings out the talent of each member. You can tell they are feeding off of each others groove.

The third track, Peace, takes the sound in an entirely different direction from the previous sounds. The song jumps into a melancholy bass and guitar delay. It's almost as if Joy Division and The Cure teemed up with Corrosion of Conformity, and used intense psychedelic vocal effects. Next up was They Come From No Where. It's a dream like serenade, showcasing synth string sounds, the echo of a choir, guitar effects and a gallop of a rhythm. Everpresent, and Lead, are other examples of why I love this bands ability to write dark and atmospheric songs. They nail it each time, and do so sincerely.

Lead spirals from Spanish classical to haunting rhythms found rarely in bands with the exception of Opeth. The vocals on Lead are full of reverb and sound warm over the guitar and orchestral sounds. And the vocalist captures a line that pulls the listener in, talking of life; lives running out. The song then displays a flute, or some sort of native American sounding wind instrument, for a solo. This may have been recorded with their synth, but sounds organic enough to go with the song's flow.

Virtual Demigod is a programmed drum number. The vocal octaves make their appearance again. The guitar tone changes into more of a Judas Priestguitar solos. The screams are perhaps less prominent then they should be to get the full feel of the nightmarish potential of the song. The ladder part of the CD seems to follow the post-electro experimental rock jam. As a first time listener, I feel the tracks mentioned above are my favorite and the direction I would love to see the band move into. Unfortunately, I could not find any web links for the band, so if anyone has them, send them our way so we may post.

-Cheers-

Written by Ryan McKern

for Neworleansmusicians.net