See, now, albums like this are such fun. You can\u2019t pigeonhole them with one or two of those pesky genres. You can\u2019t compare this to the band\u2019s previous works as a means to discuss the current music. You can\u2019t really compare it to its contemporaries, because few bands that I can think off offhand are currently making acid-jazz-prog-metal by way of whatever Deep Purple was doing in 1970. Smote Reverser <\/i>is that kind of album.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not exactly an instant classic, inasmuch as it is an insular album with many layers and no real cohesion, but it\u2019s a truly fascinating piece of work. And it\u2019s funny that prog-rock continues to sound as different in 2018 as it did in 1969 when the progenitors of the genre were bending time signatures and fusing guitar solos to classical music with lyrics about hogweeds and roundabouts and tarkuses. <\/p>\n
And like those, this is an album that one can get lost in and that takes a few listens to understand. \u201cSentient Oona\u201d is basically a twin-drum-and-vocals attack, with slight guitar coloring from time to time until the final two minutes turn into a full-band instrumental. \u201cEnrique El Cobrador\u201d essentially updates Deep Purple In Rock <\/i>for the modern era, as does \u201cC.\u201d Both are solid tunes, but its on \u201cOverthrown\u201d that the volume gets ratcheted up and completely shreds the guitars and your eardrums. It\u2019s very possible you\u2019ll blow a speaker or a neck muscle to this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast Peace\u201d plods along for a few minutes but then develops into a pulse-racing space-rock jam. Both \u201cAbysmal Urn\u201d and \u201cNail House Needle Boys\u201d are good, if not great, but contribute to the overall feel of the disc. Penultimate track \u201cFlies Bump Against The Glass\u201d is one of the strongest ones here, the spacy keyboards settling an unsettling backdrop for the fuzzed-out guitar solo. It\u2019s both menacing and triumphant. \u201cBeat Quest\u201d tries to end things on an upbeat instrumental note but the keyboards are unimaginative, playing a repetitive note without the dynamics that could have steered the song into greatness.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s \u201cAnthemic Aggressor,\u201d 12 minutes of fusion jazz, atonal guitar dribblings, some great bass work, and no point whatsoever. It\u2019s an eternal jam, one that would probably sound great live or with some chemical substance enhancement, but its presence is simply interminable and stops the momentum of the record. That said, the sort of Bitches Brew<\/i>-meets-\u201cTime Has Come Today\u201d vibe is both interesting and unique to modern music, as said above.<\/p>\n
So, your enjoyment of Smote Reverser <\/i>comes down to your tolerance for this sort of thing. If you\u2019re looking for a mostly-instrumental album that twist and turns and doesn\u2019t conform to normal \u2013 the real <\/i>alternative music \u2013 then this is a fine choice, and proof that Thee Oh Sees continues to confound and subvert 22 albums deep into their career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10230],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-45392","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-thee-oh-sees","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45392","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45392"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45392"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}