ALBUM REVIEW: Mutants – Mutoid Man
Is it any surprise at all that the new MUTOID MAN album is a banger? If you’ve heard any of the band’s previous output – or indeed if you’re familiar with the other work of its members – it really shouldn’t be. Stephen Brodsky, Ben Koller and new recruit Jeff Matz, their collective CVs loaded with the likes of CAVE IN, CONVERGE and HIGH ON FIRE to name just their primary projects, are all masters of their craft, each with their own recognisable individual style that they bring to a whole that is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts for the band’s third full-length Mutants.
Of course, MUTOID MAN have always gone beyond the idea of what might happen if one were just to smush together all the different groups its members have played in – delightful though that would be. One of their most defining features is their full commitment to the power trio set up, which sees them approach the sonic space very differently to the intricate layers of a CONVERGE or a CAVE IN for example. Brodsky plays just a single guitar track all the way through Mutants, balancing wild lead histrionics with scuzzed-out riffing whilst allowing various effects pedals to further contort his contributions. It leaves Matz to fill much of the space – to ground things perhaps – whilst Koller in turn drives the record forward with his instantly recognisable knack for bringing groove and control to even the fastest and most frantic of sections.
And generally Mutants does deal in the fast and the frantic more than anything else. There are slower and doomier moments – the moody groove of Broken Glass Ceiling, for example, or the swagger of Siren Song, or especially the gargantuan closing riff of Unborn – but most of all the album carries a real punky and thrashy urgency that makes light work of its 39-minute runtime. Lead single Call Of The Void is an anthemic opener, providing arguably Mutants’ most memorable hook right from the outset; Graveyard Love comes rumbling in with something resembling the almighty MOTÖRHEAD before Brodsky spins the playfully morbid tale the title promises (“I’m in love with my grave digger / I said hey make that hole bigger”); while Siphon dials the guitar effects up to maximum bewilderment. These are all highlights, but only ever by a hair as the quality holds remarkably even throughout.
As ever too, it’s delivered with a huge grin on the faces of all involved, at least for the most part that is. MUTOID MAN has always felt like a chance for its members to cut loose and play the music they love and even add the occasional dash of humour to proceedings, and while that definitely holds true here, there is also a more paranoid edge to the record that seems to reveal itself upon closer inspection. Even the aforementioned Call Of The Void – as riotous and uplifting as it is – concerns itself with mortality and trying to outrun death – an idea that seems to receive something of a bookend in the haunting closing lines of the record’s stunning finale Setting Sun: “I’m not the setting sun / The sun waits for no one / It’s going down in my mind / Baby we don’t have much time”.
If the themes of Mutants walk more of a tight-rope between the light-hearted and the lofty however, there is never any question as to the seriousness of the musicianship on display here. There is more talent in each individual member of MUTOID MAN than there are in some entire bands, but what makes them so special is that they never let that get in the way of them operating as a unique and cohesive unit that deals in only the tightest songcraft. Side projects and supergroups often fall into the pitfalls of ego or inadequate distinction from their members’ work elsewhere but neither of those have ever been an issue for MUTOID MAN and in Mutants they’ve produced another record that holds up to the truly remarkable discographies of all involved.
Rating: 8/10
Mutants is set for release on July 28th via Sargent House.
Like MUTOID MAN on Facebook.