ALBUM REVIEW: Mirrorcell – Greg Puciato
They haven’t made many quite like GREG PUCIATO. While surely still best known as the twisting, turning, bleeding, fire-breathing, on-stage-defecating frontman of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, it’s been clear for a while now that he’s got even more up his sleeve than that. From experimenting with electronics in THE BLACK QUEEN, to embracing more raging groove metal with KILLER BE KILLED, he’s proven a dab hand at just about everything he’s put his mind to, and his solo output is no exception. 2020’s Child Soldier: Creator Of God – his first such outing – brought with it even more surprises, 15 tracks and 65 minutes that only made him even harder to peg into any one box. Now, with a swift follow-up in Mirrorcell, we find Puciato testing his limits once more, albeit in a slightly tighter space than its predecessor.
As if following up a record as broad and brilliant as Child Soldier as quickly as Puciato has here wasn’t enough, it’s worth mentioning that in the intervening 20 months he’s also rolled out another excellent KILLER BE KILLED record, a unique audio-visual release in Fuck Content, and lent his backing vocals to the debut solo album from ALICE IN CHAINS’ Jerry Cantrell. That last point feels particularly relevant to Mirrorcell, and especially to its opening trifecta of In This Hell You’ll Find Yourself, Reality Spiral and No More Lives To Go. With the former providing something of a scuzzy instrumental intro piece, the following pair lean heavily on a swaggering, riff-driven grunge as Puciato comes out swinging with two of the most straightforward ragers the record has to offer.
Although a lot shorter than its predecessor at just 44 minutes, Mirrorcell still manages to cram an awful lot into its nine tracks. It does it gracefully too, with the moodier grunge of Never Wanted That helping the album to settle from its bristling opening salvo without totally neutering the momentum. If anything, Puciato arguably fares even better in these slightly less high-octane tracks, his instantly recognisable vocals enjoying the space afforded to them as the record takes a turn into increasingly shoegazey and post-punky territories. Perhaps one of the finest and most obvious examples comes in the form of lead single Lowered, a track which sees Puciato trading off emotive clean vocals with CODE ORANGE’s Reba Myers for a firm and stirring overall highlight.
As solid as Myers’ appearance is, and as much as drummer Chris Hornbrook brings his A-game throughout, it really is all about the main man here. Whether its his squealing guitar solo on Reality Spiral, the range he shows off on the hypnotic, DEFTONES-esque I, Eclipse, or the snarling fury he musters in the album’s near-nine-minute closer All Waves To Nothing, Puciato remains the focal point as musician, vocalist and songwriter throughout. Even the overall flow of the record works masterfully, evolving from its more rocking opening run to become ever more grand and expansive without ever feeling like it’s lurched from one lane to another. It all culminates in the staggering, often THE CURE-esque Rainbows Underground, and the aforementioned All Waves To Nothing, which makes full use of its sizable runtime to bring the album to a suitably epic close.
Even coming so soon after Child Soldier, no-one in their right mind would’ve expected Puciato to deliver anything that felt hurried or half-baked, and Mirrorcell doesn’t disappoint. This is another phenomenal, fully-realised work from a man who has been incapable of producing anything less than excellence for nearly two decades now. If, somehow, you’ve never heard any of his work before, this is pretty much as good a place to start as any, if not even more so given its relative accessibility in comparison to the more bewildering fare of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN. If, on the other hand, you’ve been a fan of Puciato’s for a while now, then you probably won’t need us to tell you that Mirrorcell is essential listening. Either way, get after it and enjoy another wonderful work from one of the brightest lights our scene has ever produced.
Rating: 8/10
Mirrorcell is set for release on July 1st via Federal Prisoner.
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