A new band but some recognisable old hands here, turning over the soil and growing new things. Formed by Atheist vocalist Kelly Shaefer and including a couple of band members from the Floridian heavyweights along with players from acts such as Soreption and Fermentor, this may have plenty of spiralling shapes to it but is very different affair than the day job. What they have set out to do here is not get caught up in either the extremity or technicality of the death metal genre but inject some much needed fun back into it. Well it’s immediately obvious that they have done just that over the 11 tracks on display and furthermore they have also incorporated plenty of extra ideas into things and take in a variety of genres on this somewhat wild ride.
Manic thrash with snarly vocals great us on ‘Starring Role’ and the chops get yer bonce banging from the off. Quickly showing that you shouldn’t take anything for granted Kelly injects some clean vocals into things, catching you off guard but injecting a soulful, on point quality along with some groovy stoner-etched guitar grooves. By the title track with both the burgeoning chops and vocal annunciation it’s pretty difficult to not draw comparisons to the hevy Devy one. The shift from the SYL pace of the opener to his heftier solo work with the progressive flow of the track is an easy comparison and as we hit the chorus we have a number that is guaranteed to latch in high on the memorability stakes. Things never stand still for a sec as we bounce from one rigorous track to the next. ‘Privilege’ has a brain melting guitar clamour but one that’s more likely to have you grinning and gnashing teeth along with the rapid-fire vocals, than tying you in knots. It also has some bluesy ballast amidst the other turbulent and frantic furrowing before the harmonious clean vocals come from Out Of Nowhere on ‘As It Seems’ and drag me straight back the late 80’s and Mike Patton with Faith No More. It’s a hook on an otherwise frenzied number enforced by Dylan Marks’ pummelling drum performance which leaves you nothing short of breathless.
You can tell everyone is having fun here and although you cannot say that aspects of the album aren’t extreme enough to keep the hardiest of bangers happy, there is also at times a neat accessibility to it. Technicality is not completely forgotten either, the free-falling jazz-hand guitars on ‘Invitation’ a case in point. Thankfully it never tries being too clever and goes up its own ass though. Crossover / groove metal aspects are also on hand on the likes of ‘Forest Of Because’ and there’s even a spot of heavyset grunge amidst it all. Perhaps the biggest surprise, although to be fair the PR blurb mentions that classic pop may rear its head, is on ‘The Good The Bad And The Other’ the other being some melody lines that could have come straight off an old classic Beatles album. As for ‘When You Grow Old’ nobody is quite 64 yet and the plunging bass line and down-tempo moments have some of that great Type O Negative magic about them.
Not being the biggest of technical death metal fans or anything like a knowledgeable font of all things Atheist, I only took this album as it was left looking for attention. Damn glad I did though as it has proven to be a big surprise. Don’t be a cynic like me, give it a try, Till The Dirt could well prove themselves to be your new favourite band. Banger!
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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