Review Summary: Though not having incredible depth, Elephantine is a great abrasive hardcore album. Very unique instrumentation.
When a person starts to become interested in music, they start by listening to the basics. Growing up with an abundance of classic rock, my roots were firmly grounded there. Somehow finding my to modern rock, and eventually metal, my preferred listening became what I used to think was just noise and was scared of. Over the years of listening to new sub-genres of metal, I noticed something. For whatever reason I almost completely skipped over punk rock. The few punk rock records that I do own have major experimental qualities to their sound. While watching an episode of an Internet metal show called Metal Injection, in which Genghis Tron was being interviewed I came about Akimbo. It was either Genghis Tron's guitarist mentioning Akimbo or just because the guitarist was wearing one of their shirts, I was provoked to listen to some of Akimbo's music. What I discovered was a raw, experimetal hardcore band with straight up rock infused into their music. Why this band appealed to me, I'm not sure but
Elephantine served as a great gateway album, though a little backwards, for a person who listens to mostly metal.
An impressive drum solo sets off 'Golem',
Elephantine first track. What I immediately realized is that this album is not your ordinary sounding hardcore. With subtle time-signature changes and interesting guitar work, I was instantly hooked. Not being the most distorted or the most technical but still being aggressive and heavy in their own right, the guitars are something special. Reminding of something These Arms Are Snakes might produce, the riffs are very rock based. 'Delilah' is centered around the guitarists ability to instantly alter the feeling of the track. Staring off as one of the more compelling punk rock songs I've heard, 'Delilah' seems to be teetering on the edge of sanity. Not providing any comfort to the listener, the track becomes a swaying blues section, foot-tapping rhythm included. The reverberated screams of, "Just like Dalilah" imply caution anyone listening to only relax for mere seconds. Erupting and dying back down repeatedly into a dissonant(minor seconds maybe?) section kept me on the edge of my seat, displaying a aspect of Akimbo's music I truly enjoy. Much of the time being played sloppy, the guitars demand much of the attention. This is most likely due to their "what the hell are they going to do next" attitude.
The bass is by no means inferior to the prevailing guitars. Carving his own path throughout the album, the bassist plays in a style all his own. Very tight and to the point as most punk bassists are, he knows when to show-off and when not to. He goes out on a limb by incorporating interesting, effect-laden basslines that are usually not found in any type of punk rock. Keeping in-line with the snare drum, the bass progressions and riffs are spot on. 'Harpoon's intro is the lone bass playing a simple, very open-ended line gradually adding more notes and eventually strumming chords producing an intriguing sound to it all. The attention catching intro of 'The Art of Asphyxiation' morphs into a hammer-on pull-off extravaganza, pleasing to any bassists' ears.
The extended snare drum roll of 'Cavernous Black Eyes' hints at the drummers talent as he subtilely begins to make the roll more complex with the added drums. Surely acting as a back-bone for the rest of the band, the drummer finds time to play some great fills. The styles, along with the guitars, that he shifts from and to are brilliant. With the merging of punk beats, funk-like grooves and the occasional hardcore assaults (double bass pedal used sparingly...yay) there is not much to dislike about the above-par drumming. A charging rhythm section full of spectacular moments was always ferocious and never let the album become boring. The vocals, for the most part, are bordering on becoming completely generic, though they were never lousy at any point on the album. They definitely make the music seem more fierce and intense, they just don't stand out in particular to the audio stampede of the instruments.
Elephantine should certainly be purchased by any avid metal listener looking to get into punk rock, as should any current fan of punk or hardcore. The instruments are very unique effortlessly blending certain genres and moods very well. Clocking in at just over thirty minutes, Akimbo knows when enough is enough and ends the album on a good note, never letting ideas to become rehashed or uninspired. There were not many problems with the album, one being that some songs sound to similar and may take repeated listens to be able to tell them apart. Also, while the album is extremely fun to listen to, it never "wow-ed" me to the point of where I'd be preaching the greatness of this album to the world.
