Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Icky Mettle
On a whim, I popped in Archers of Loaf's Icky Mettle (their first album) today. I forgot what a great album it is and what a shame that bands today can't make albums like this. The Archers of Loaf are certainly a weird band, an acquired taste, if you will. But they flat out rawk and this album is one of my all-time favorites.
The Archers of Loaf aren't for everyone. I didn't even much care for them when I first started listening to them. I remember thinking that the singer has a weird voice. How weird? Let's just say that Simon Cowell wouldn't let him go to Hollywood with it. It's very gravelly, and he screams a lot. It also seems a bit out of tune, but that's what I like about it. It's different enough to stand out from the crowd, to be noticed. But it's not different enough to suck (I'm looking at you Pantera).
What got me hooked on the Archers of Loaf is what gets me hooked on almost all my favorite bands, the guitar riffs. The Archers excelled at this. They knew how to craft songs that made you bob your head along. They also knew how to propel songs forward, to make you anticipate the next note. This can best be exemplified on "Toast." It starts out as a simple song with the guitar strumming a few notes in the background. But you can feel the bass and drums just itching to play faster. And so you start itching for it yourself. But the song keeps going slow. Now you're just dying for them to rock it out. And they just keep playing it slow. And when you just can't handle it anymore, they unleash the noise, giving you everything you were waiting for and more.
I've said it before, but the Archers of Loaf are one of my top 5 bands, and Icky Mettle is one of my favorite albums of all-time. It has plenty of guitar riffs. It has slower songs. It has fast songs. It has sing-a-longs. It has air-guitar-worthy songs. It was one of my favorite CDs to play in my Jeep with the top down. (My #1 favorite Jeep CD was The Reverend Horton Heat's The Full Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat.) And as far as I'm concerned, it ranks right up there with Exile on Main Street and Surfer Rosa as one of the best albums of all time.
The Archers of Loaf aren't for everyone. I didn't even much care for them when I first started listening to them. I remember thinking that the singer has a weird voice. How weird? Let's just say that Simon Cowell wouldn't let him go to Hollywood with it. It's very gravelly, and he screams a lot. It also seems a bit out of tune, but that's what I like about it. It's different enough to stand out from the crowd, to be noticed. But it's not different enough to suck (I'm looking at you Pantera).
What got me hooked on the Archers of Loaf is what gets me hooked on almost all my favorite bands, the guitar riffs. The Archers excelled at this. They knew how to craft songs that made you bob your head along. They also knew how to propel songs forward, to make you anticipate the next note. This can best be exemplified on "Toast." It starts out as a simple song with the guitar strumming a few notes in the background. But you can feel the bass and drums just itching to play faster. And so you start itching for it yourself. But the song keeps going slow. Now you're just dying for them to rock it out. And they just keep playing it slow. And when you just can't handle it anymore, they unleash the noise, giving you everything you were waiting for and more.
I've said it before, but the Archers of Loaf are one of my top 5 bands, and Icky Mettle is one of my favorite albums of all-time. It has plenty of guitar riffs. It has slower songs. It has fast songs. It has sing-a-longs. It has air-guitar-worthy songs. It was one of my favorite CDs to play in my Jeep with the top down. (My #1 favorite Jeep CD was The Reverend Horton Heat's The Full Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat.) And as far as I'm concerned, it ranks right up there with Exile on Main Street and Surfer Rosa as one of the best albums of all time.
