ALBUM REVIEW: Arrows – Red Fang

When you shoot an arrow, you’ve got a 50% chance of hitting your target. Sometimes bands try to break boundaries by being bold, by scrapping the formula that works so well. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Some bands shoot like William Tell and strike the apple on their son’s head, and some bands slip and shoot themselves in the foot. On their first album in five years, stoner-rock slackers RED FANG bounce between the two, aiming at the target thirteen times on the aptly-titled Arrows.

After five years away, most bands would be forgiven for throwing out their tried-and-tested formulas as a way of easing everyone back into the fold. RED FANG forgo pleasantries, throwing listeners into the deep-end from the word go, for better or worse. Opener Take It Back can only be described as a band detuning themselves down to hell, a lo-fi slab of droney doom that drags along two minutes like it’s twenty. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, as its follow-up Unreal Estate is a lesson in conciseness, or lack thereof; frictious feedback flirts with the terrors of tinnitus, submitting to a watered-down jug of BLACK SABBATH worship and ORANGE GOBLIN spirit that sounds like MASTODON’s Brent Hinds has gone off the rails. For a band that gave us a song as anthemic as the stoner-meets-slacker-rock of Prehistoric Dog, they aren’t half sounding prehistoric at this point.

Once you’ve cut through the crust, you come across the title track; a rollercoaster of riffs that runs around your mind’s track, harking back to arguably their best years circa their self-titled album in 2009. Showcasing a brilliant battle between the positive and negative nodes our brains bargain with, it’s also the start of an album-long trend of a handful of goodies, a handful of stinkers, and repeat. My Disaster dazzles with its blistering, beat-em-up lo-fi punk, whilst Bryan Giles‘ vocal take on Two High steals its riff-and-roll thunder. Elsewhere on Rabbits In Hives, they swap the spliffs for pills, spewing out TURBOWOLF on acid in a one minute shotgun blast, not long before Dr Owl’s descent into madness derails their sudden flash of form with its tripwire switch from riotous stoner rock into a devil’s playground of droney doom that dawdles on. 

It’s evident in all of the aforementioned ailments that two things are clear here. One, RED FANG are far better at the slap-and-dash stoner-rock songs than they are the drawn-out dronelands they’re daring to explore; and two, whether it’s due to muddying production from long-time producer Chris Funk or simply the sound of aging vocal chords, the vocal takes from Giles across Arrows let down career-best performances from vocalist and bassist Aaron Beam and drummer John Sherman. 

Arrows is an album that indulges in itself far too much to make sense. It’s ambitious, and whilst all bands should seek some kind of evolution, RED FANG miss the target more than they hit it here. When they stick to their guns and shoot out straight-up stoner-rock anthems, it’s a no brainer. When they’re trudging through untouched territories, they’re trivial at best. After five years of anticipation, Arrows is a disappointing step back from a band who were once on the brink of being the undisputed kings of modern-day stoner rock. 

Rating: 5/10

Arrows is set for release on June 4th via Relapse Records. 

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