Review Summary: A masterwork from a band that has it's fair share of great albums.
A great starting point for most people to be introduced to
Clutch,
Blast Tyrant is a groove-laden, bluesy stoner-rock sledgehammer of an album with a certain immature charm, retro style, and classic feel that you can't help but nod along to.
Eschewing any modern metal conventions, rock evolutions, or progressive tendencies,
Clutch aims directly for the cheap seats with their music: It is hamfisted and simple, but powerful and almost annoyingly catchy: All old sixties muscle car or modern diesel truck power, no ricer tricks. Through fifteen tracks (a few could've been cut) the band weaves inbetween straight-up, four-on-the-floor fury and Sabbathian walls of riffs to swinging, distorted Delta bar blues, stop-and-go riffs and a huge penchant for the aesthetics of stoner rock while not
exactly playing stoner rock.
On
Blast Tyrant, the band occasionally shows flashes and flares of technical ability, but their general modus operandi is K.I.S.S. It's a simple thing, really: They worship at the altar of the Song, and if their music was a person, it would see needless displays of fretboard gymnastics and drum solos as pointless and pretentious. Most bands would have an issue with filling an album with this, much less a
damn good one, but
Clutch has managed to ladle up some chunky, tasty riffs from their deep stew of creativity. Almost everything about
Blast Tyrant is tasteful, rock-solid, and fully developed.
Almost everything. The ending instrumental "WYSIWYG" feels tacked on, perhaps in a last-ditch effort to remind people about their extended jams that occur frequently during their famed live shows. "Goat Merchant" is a bit ridiculous and could've been easily left on the cutting room floor.
"The Mob Goes Wild" is a deep-fried bit of punky, metal-laden blues that swings its way in with some of Fallon's trademark, spaced out lyrics about adjusting his pants and later with this gem:
Condoleeza Rice is nice but I prefer A-Roni
"Cypress Grove" is a hopelessly catchy, stop-start foray into the Deep South with a monster of a verse and a wall-of-sound groove chorus. "Army of Bono" is a funky barnburner with vocal lines bellowed out from someone that could only,
only come from pure conviction. And the word "conviction" is the key bit here: When you listen to
Blast Tyrant, you don't get a feeling like the band is trying to be one thing or the other... they just are. It's pure, and it's a band that has found exactly what they want to play.
Except for the songs above, just about everything here is solid with great instrumental performances by band members that may or may not know that metal is still alive and has moved past
Black Sabbath and
Deep Purple. The music is breezy and playful while at the same time immediate and open, making it something you can enjoy instantly and play for years. Fallon shows us the worldview of a college-educated-perpetual-teenager-stoner, bringing us to ridiculous places that sometimes make you wonder about the mans sanity. But this sh*t
rocks, so who cares?
If rock fury tempered with a bit of metal, punk, stoner rock, and a hefty dose of blues sounds right up your alley, you simply cannot do wrong by checking this album out. It's a masterwork from a band with a catalog that has its fair share of great albums, and due to its classically written nature it holds up remarkably well with the passage of time. It's an album to blast in your car, while at the gym, or just for the hell of it. Highly recommended.
