WETNURSE - Invisible City (2008)

[padrak]

VÖ: 2008

Genre: Noise/Math/Sonstwas Rock

Label: Seventh Rule Recordings

Herkunftsland: USA


Tracklist:

01. Conversations With The Moon
02. Not Your Choice
03. Growing Pains
04. Life At Stake
05. Sacred Peel
06. Your Last Flower
07. Missing Lion Returns
08. Slow Your Spell, Miss Hell

Trying to describe Wetnurse is akin to reasoning with a dog while it's eating. I've been trying to crank out a review for Invisitble City, their second album and debut for Seventh Rule Recordings, for well over two weeks and every time I think I have a lock on what the album's really about, it switches directions.

Put it this way – the opening (acoustic, no less) bars of lead track “Conversations with the Moon” give you the impression that this New York four-piece has streamlined its sound and moved away from the ADD riffing that defined the musical side of their 2005 self titled release. But then they start bouncing off the walls. Oh, okay, so they're still doing this jittery, Akimbo-by-way-of-Keelhaul-esque type of metal. Wait, that thrashy bit in “Not Your Choice” and the directness and melody of “Life at the Stake” belie that impression. Whoa, what the fuck was that bit of musical madness? That sounds more like something you'd hear on an Intronaut or Mastodon album. Hey, there's that acoustic guitar again! Oh hell, there it goes!

Invisible City is like that, mixing and matching all manner of the heavy, throwing shit against the wall and seeing what sticks. Turns out most of it does, and that's most indicative with closing track “Slow Your Spell, Miss Hell.” It starts off in the conventional Wetnurse manner (from left field, then careening unpredictably), the band opts to close the song out with an extended solo that's positively anthemic. It's something that'd be more in place on some classic southern rock ballad type, and yet feels perfectly natural in the context of a song that started off more enamored with hardcore and metal.

While the instrumental side of Wetnurse is limber and inventive, they pale in comparison to the vocals, which, as was the case last time around, fall into the “acquired taste” category. Gene Fowler still manages to shriek, bellow, and howl at the same time, a din of possessed anarchy. It's as if you put a cat, a badger, and a hawk in a burlap sack and told them to sort out their differences and learn to get along. It may take a bit to get used to, but he's an integral part of the band. When Stephanie Gravelle shows up as guest vocalist on “Missing Lion Returns,” she completely change the dynamic of the music. It sounds almost immediately digestible.

Normally, that'd be the place I recommend the unfamiliar to start off with, but Wetnurse ought to be celebrated for all their wild, woolly, weirdness. I'm pretty sure Invisible City is an improvement over their debut, but given the case of whiplash it's given me, I'm still a little unsteady on my feet. Give me a couple of minutes to catch my breath and ask me again.

(Quelle: stonerrock.com)

Persönlicher Nachtrag:
Ich höre dieses Album jetzt schon über 3 Monate lang und habe mich endlich zu einer Meinung durchringen können.
Für meine Ohren kommt es einem perfekten Bastard aus Noise und Math Rock plus irgendwas anderem sehr nahe.
Es ist eingängig und chaotisch zugleich, nie wirklich leise und wechselt ständig die Richtung. Ein sehr anstrengendes Album, aber der Geduldige wird belohnt werden. Klasse!

Meine Wertung: 9.0/10

HumusMeter: nothing is impossible

Hörbeispiele + Info:
http://www.myspace.com/wetnursenyc