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Six seconds into The Entrance Band’s new album the guitar comes in with a sound somewhere between a siren and a screeching cat. This serves as a call to attention on the aptly titled “Lookout!” where Guy (the singer) keeps warning the listener about walking on the wrong side of the street in the same way that he sings on the rest of the album; as if he were fervently proclaiming some blissed-out stoner gospel. Because of Guy’s delivery, mixed with just the right amount or reverb and occasional outcries, the songs are spellbinding. He could be reading the ingredients on a bag of Cheetos and somehow make the guargum sound dramatic. It’s because his voice goes to falsetto like Emerill “Bams” his gumbo; cranking it up three notches, piercing through somehow deeper beyond the song into a realm where the wild things really are.
Speaking of which, “You’re So Fine” is all wild drama. With the repeating line “kiss me one more time” amidst delayed guitars in a cut-through-the-bullshit non poetic way that pretty much sums up what howling loins would sound like if microphones could tune in to a lusty libido. The honey soaked instruments play like some angelic three piece that, if they could travel through time would have done a swell job accompanying Jesus’ sermon on the mount with suitable heft and transcendence, would have ruled the Monterey Pop festival in ’67, and might make ears joyously bleed atop a Mayan pyramid as the world is engulfed in flames circa 2012.
The Entrance Band is old school rock and roll or to put it in a much more convoluted way, they are something akin to Buddy Holly and Robert Johnson’s cloned step son on a tequila bender fronting a Hawkwind cover band with members of The Birthday Party jamming on Cream’s instruments playing at some demon god of the nether world’s birthday party. Every note a portent of doom. The drums and bass melding into both fire and brimstone. Well, maybe not that ominous sounding (some songs are quite catchy and the heartfelt “M.L.K.” is so simple and unironic as to be beautifully uncool) but you get the picture.
Those familiar with The Entrance Band (which seems interchangeable with the more minimal moniker Entrance) will be glad to hear that the death/ Grim Reaper fixation is still in bloom. “Grim Reaper Blues,” featured on the band’s last outing Prayer of Death gets a part two implying that part one lacked a certain incendiary live feel which is fully realized here. This seems to be the theme of the album—to capture the band’s live feel and peel away the studio/ overdub layers of violins, keyboards and guitars that the band’s earlier albums had. This is not Prayer of Death 2 and I compliment them for moving forward and being ballsy enough as not to hide behind overdubs. It is easy to see how this distillation will alienate some. Prayer Of Death’s wall of sound and interspliced acoustic numbers seemed to define their sound and yet those who have seen them play live will be excited by the sparser, meatier Entrance represented here. |
