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Following on from last year’ Blast Tyrant a lot of people expected big things from Clutch. With their profile steadily rising among fans the new album needed to maintain their momentum in an upward direction. To these ears they have easily done that with perhaps their finest album yet. This is the album that may take a few listens to reveal its full strengths but is worth persevering with as it delivers big time. I loved it 1st listen but find that I like it more & more when I hear it again. Comparisons have been made with Rage against the Machine which has probably more to do with some of the riffing than the singing as there’s no whiney shouting from Neil Fallon here. Fallon’s voice sounds great on this album & indeed the whole band has taken a step upwards sound wise. Neil’s vocals could be described as an acquired taste but are well worth making the effort for & he’s a great lyricist as well…… The addition of Mick Schauer on keyboards has added more to the sound of the band & has given them new places to go with the song writing. It will be interesting to see how long term fans of the band view this change in style slight though it is. This is one of those albums to get into each time you listen to it as with each play something new gets revealed. This album will definitely appear in the best of 2005 lists for sure if people actually get a chance to listen to it. With this level of progression in their sound I can’t wait for the next album…… A
few highlights are: ‘The Incomparable Mr. Flannery’,
‘Burning beard’, ‘never be moved’ &
‘1001110101’. Check out any of these tunes to see how
good the album is…. REVIEW BY BEN BYRNE |
Clutch
– A band much loved by others on this site & still relatively
new to my ears return in 2005 with a new album.