Review Summary: Agonizingly fuzzy sophomore album from Northwestern two piece.
Echo Challenge is an appropriate way to start off an album titled “Skyward in Triumph.” It begins temperate, quivering, before expanding solemnly, full of tension. I wouldn’t say the track is exactly “triumphant” or that it ever even reaches the sky, but it’s appropriate all the same. It’s easy to tell the song is made with just too instruments, (the throbbing bass and the clash of one cymbal) but it’s not something you pick up on right away. The same can be said for the rest of godheadSilo’s sophomore release, it’s all just bass and drums (well, vocals too) but the scarcity of other instruments isn’t something one finds himself lamenting. A bit of high end here of there wouldn’t hurt anyone, but the songs work ok without it. Some better than others, but this can be expected.
godhead’s sound is high-energy and encrusted in impossible amounts of dirge and distortion. There were plenty of nineties bands that do the fuzz-rock thing well, but few I’ve heard come even close to reaching the maddeningly thick sound godhead employs here. You could compare them to other noisy bass and drums outfits, Lightning Bolt being the first one to come to mind, but the songs on Skyward seem much more pop-minded. Some are catchy, some aren’t, but they still revolve around a lot of the traditional pop institutions.
But, of course, there are the exceptions: On Guardians of the Threshold, godheadSilo begin in a style similar to the rest of the albums tracks, but as the song dissolves around the 4 minute mark, bassist Mike Kunka begins an earsplitting, marathon feedback session. Whether the section (which clocks in at around 5 minutes total) is a test of a listener’s endurance, or an earnest “bridge” to a good track, it certainly gets the point across. The band bookend the song with a truly conclusive post-rocksy section, but whether it’s worth sitting through Kunka’s harrowing noisefest is entirely up to you. Other songs are far more listenable, try French Loan or (even more so) Booby Trap if you’re into that. But even with tunes like these, it proves hard for the band to make their formula remain interesting through-out the record. All the vocals are buried in the same fuzz, all the bass-tones equally distorted, it just gets a little stale. Don’t get me wrong though, a lot of Guardians is worthy punk rock, and whatever pain you feel while listening is well worth it to hear Calvin Johnson (of Beat Happening, among others) rap on finale Skyward in Triumph, godhead’s tongue-in-cheek ode to BMX biking and Mountain Dew. Seriously.
- Joe.
