Review Summary: Maybe the most aptly titled album of all time and the most fun I had all 2024.
How much stupid fun can you pack into a 21 minute runtime? Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol is throwing their hat into the ring to say, simply, an awful ***ing lot if you don't take yourself too seriously. Austin, Texas self-described Doom-Wop trio has done a bit of reimagining to their sound on their third LP. The beautifully and aptly titled "Big Dumb Riffs" sees the band forgoing much of the gimmicky elements of their past two LPs and hitting you with a cool 21 minutes straight of - you guessed it - big dumb riffs.
"Big Dumb Riffs" draws inspiration from many different Big Dumb Sources, but the most immediately obvious is Meshuggah. Bouncy, detuned 8-string riffs dominate the album, but they are utilized in many different ways. Some of the tracks evoke early nu-metal a-la System of a Down's self titled, while others are more straight forward mosh pit affairs. Still others take a more mathy, noisy approach but all of them, however are centered around the titular theme... Big Dumb Riffs.
Guitarist/Vocalist Leo Lydon adds even more of a playful nature to the music with his vocals. He does his damndest to drive his absurd lyrics into your brain with an almost mocking half-sung/half-spoken delivery akin to Mike D of Beastie Boys. It would all be grating if it somehow just didn't inexplicably work together to make a number of the catchiest smooth-brain "metal" songs I've heard all year. Leo is happy to mostly just sit on the low strings and establish the groove, but he does occasionally go into Fredrik Thordenal territory with noisy atonal licks as well as dissonant elements that would be at home on your favorite KEN Mode or even Swans records. Bassist/backup vocalist Aaron Metzdorf plays a very interesting role on the record, often times being the one that adds leads or extra spice to the grooves instead of the guitarist. His vocal additions are a bit more abrasive and range from gang shouts to shrieky harsh vocals. He takes the lead in the clear stand-out closer "In A Jar", injecting some much needed melody into the fray while Leo sings his most earnestly on the entire record. It's a fuzzed out doom-gaze banger that bookends the listener metaphorically having their skull bashed in with a sledgehammer.
Debatably the best part of the record is how Drummer Sean St. Germain manages to just sit in the pocket and keep your head bobbing the whole time. He knows when the push the energy up, and he knows when to sit back and just hit a perfectly timed tasty ***in' fill. He gives the whole record more of a hardcore punk energy and attitude, and definitely adds to the catchiness of the tracks significantly. Big Dumb Riffs is at it's best when he's just smashing the *** out of his drums to almost hilariously heavy accompaniment by his bandmates while Leo's sneering vocals assault your ears.
Some of the tracks are a bit of a swing-and-a-miss of sorts for me personally, but even the weaker cuts are over and done with so fast that they aren't very off-putting. Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol also wears their attitude as a badge of honor. If bands that do not take music/lyrics too seriously are your kryptonite- you have been warned. With that being said, do not take "not serious" as another way of saying "not well crafted" or "lazy." These guys really have honed their song writing to be razor sharp. Overall, RBBP has released a record that has been on and off rotation all year and will continue to be into 2025.
