ALBUM REVIEW: Tango Umbrella – American Head Charge
After a 4-year break, Minnesota based Nu-Metal 6 piece AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE have once again stepped up for a re-birth. Their last release was Shoot, an EP that came in 2013, and their latest release since The Feeding in 2006. Shoot was the bands first exposure with the new line-up and received impressive feedback.
March 25th sees the release of the sextet’s newest album Tango Umbrella under Napalm Records funded by an Indiegogo campaign, and sees band set the bar high, having consistently produced top quality content with albums like the previously mentioned The Feeding and The War of Art. AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE are a household name for Nu-Metal fans both new and old and have spanned the genres life incredibly well.
Purists may be worried that a creative edge may have been lost over the years, which is understandable with a band that has had such substantial changes to its line-up. Do not fret however, as Tango Umbrella is classic AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE; obscurities, heavy tones, savage vocals and all around well written music.
Tango Umbrella is a versatile album, and spans many varying styles with the Nu-Metal genre and wafts beautifully from each extreme; clean vocals with hauntingly smooth melody backing it can be noted in tracks like A King Among Men. Then you can experience the flipside of that with tracks like I Will Have My Day and Suffer Gently, huge crushing riffs that sound almost militaristic.
Nu-Metals typicality is present, but it is the better examples that show; Let All The World Believe, Perfectionist and Suffer Elegantly are all notable examples of this. This album encapsulates so many of the great aspects of the genre and it is great because AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE led a big part of it.
AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE have always had an industrial side to them though, it played a huge part in how people discovered them all those years ago. In a way similar to that of MUSHROOMHEAD and of course FEAR FACTORY, Nu-Metal had so many striking elements to it that it because incredibly broad and while still experimental enough to be avant-garde. Tango umbrella still gets risky in places, some things do not quite fit, and that really plays to the genres strengths in tracks like When the Time is Never Right.
Once again there are parallels though, Down and Depraved sounds new, which may sound a tad peculiar, but it feels like elements from newer music has its way in to the bands stylistic repertoire. To suggest it is a rebirth of the Nu-Metal genre would probably be a bit much, imagine that it has dropped below the radar and cherry picked elements from the dominating genres of now.
Tango Umbrella isn’t a window back in time, Nu-metal is very much still relevant, but it is solid proof of the strength of AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE can continue with what they do and still produce solid belters through and through. 11 golden tracks all ridiculously tight that easily stand up on their own and remain well played throughout.
Rating: 9/10
Tango Umbrella is set for release on March 25th via Napalm Records.
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