I’ll make no bones about it right here in the beginning of this
\nreview: Boulder is a band who confuses me.<\/p>\n
On the surface, they seem to be your average stoner rock band –
\nespecially when on the cover of their latest release
\nRavage And Savage<\/i> they look like they’re connected to a bong
\nusing tubing you’d find at your local muffler shop. Yet listening
\nto the music on this disc – combining the new disc with their first
\nfull-length offering
\nThe Rage Of It All<\/i> – shows a group which is one part Queens
\nOf The Stone Age, one part Napalm Death and one part Helmet. The
\nend result is a bit messy, but isn’t disastrous like I might have
\nimagined when I heard the first notes.<\/p>\n
Boulder further confuses me by leaving out any information about
\nthe band in their liner notes – never mind the fact I’ve misplaced
\nthe bio sheet I was sent with the disc. Note to the group: If you
\nwant to be more well-known outside of Cleveland, how’s about
\ntelling us something about the group, like who’s in it, huh?<\/p>\n
Boulder seems to plow through songs like “Funeral Day,” “Ravage
\nAnd Savage” and “Two Track Mind” like a semi-trailer driving
\nthrough bubble wrap, though the band’s approach is a little
\nsloppier just in the tightness (or lack thereof) of the group. It
\nalso would have been nice had there been actual vocals, not just
\nscreams on top of the sonic soup. (That said, if you listen to this
\ndisc with headphones, the vocals come out a little clearer.)<\/p>\n
Here, then, is the curious thing about this disc. Had the album
\nended simply with
\nRavage And Savage<\/i>, things would have probably been a little
\nbetter. I understand the desire of Boulder to offer listeners a
\nslice of the band’s history by including
\nThe Rage Of It All<\/i>, but in all honesty, including the nine
\ntracks of this album (as well as “Scream Of The Iron Messiah” from
\na split 45) isn’t a benefit for the band. The only negative,
\nthough, is that sitting through 67 minutes’ worth of muddied
\nmusical focus gets to be a bit taxing. Smaller doses would possibly
\nhave helped; I would have been happy to call
\nRavage And Savage<\/i> worthwhile of your entertainment dollar on
\nits own, warts and all.<\/p>\n
It’s the paradoxical Sword of Damocles that hung over Boulder’s
\nhead with this two-fer – and while there is enough on
\nRavage And Savage<\/i>‘s 10 tracks that make me curious to hear
\nthe group’s upcoming outing (due a little later in 2002), taking
\nthis whole disc in one sitting is a bit too much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6706],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37323","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-boulder","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37323"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37323"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}