Fuzz - Fuzz Review

rating: 4

The power trio behind this year's newest psych-meets-metal band are none other than Ty Segall, Charlie Moothart and Roland Cosio. Better known now as FUZZ, Segall's latest release drifts further away from the garage rock, thrash-happy, carnivorous efforts we've seen him come up with, and most certainly shatters glass compared to the likes of his last solo album, the acoustic Sleeper. Band mates Moothart and Cosio made their names as members of The Moonhearts a few years back, where Moothart played drums, Cosio on the guitar and friendly face Mikal Cronin on bass. It's no wonder these high school friends are back in the limelight - they've been making music together for the last decade. Though it wouldn't be difficult for any fan of Ty Segall to identify who was backing the vocals and power riffs in an unidentified 7" release by Trouble In Mind earlier this Spring, the cat was out of the bag the moment his voice slashed through the speakers, this time trading his guitar for hammers in both hands. And I certainly have to give it to him - the guy can play the drums. FUZZ's self titled release boarders on early metal and has already been compared too closely to Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer and a plethora of others for my liking, but it reigns true, considering most of it takes a walk down the distorted yellow brick road right towards Hell's Gates. All comparisons aside, FUZZ breathe fire into the calming, cosmic land of spin-headed psychedelia - and thank God for that. Opening track 'Earthen Gates' could be the long lost brother to Metallica's 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium). It tells a story through Moothart's bluesy cry of a guitar riff, slathers into a menacing reverb and then cuts right into the hook. Whatever just happened - it was brilliant. 'Sleigh Ride' hides the lyrics "We changed those raising the white god/ they braced and then we got through" behind hi-fi, buff droning and a quick, sinister vibration. Musical metaphors run rampant throughout this track, and it's hard to figure out how three guys from sunny Laguna Beach could write lyrics that are so overcast. The only sense of fragility felt throughout this record is beneath 'What's In My Head', anchoring on melodic leads with the comfort of Segall's familiar voice. There are tinges of metal seeping through every track of the album, but without a doubt it is drenched in psychedelics. Example taken in the crunchy riffs of 'The Preacher', which is engine-propelled, swirling as the eye of the storm around a shit show of screeches. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5xRq5f1kCU The beginning of 'Loose Sutres' is reminiscent of the Ty Segall Band's Slaughterhouse record until a drum solo overthrows Mootharts brilliantly idiosyncratic blues guitar sound into an increasingly unsettling session of pure mania. With Moothart stealing the spotlight back, this time on vocal duty in 'Raise', we get a feel for the flare of the '70s with chugging percussions and the roll of Hendrix inspired complexities to push the FUZZ locomotive forward as it crashes right into the album's instrumental climax 'One.' Although it serves its purpose in showing off, six minutes more of beefy solos take advantage during the last slot of the record and could easily have been replaced with another chunk of Charlie on the microphone. The self-titled LP offers much more than any of their 7" releases could ever, keeping in mind that the psychedelic slant of 'Fuzz's Fourth Dream' and 'This Time I Got A Reason', two of their most popular singles were kept off the full length. Uncloaking the darker side of what FUZZ really is, the album feels characterised by animosity and dismissal towards what they've done in the past. In hindsight, it feels like a lot of f***ing tension has built up and been released over eight menacing tracks. As the aesthetic of the band's debut does its duty in recruiting new members for the FUZZ Army, we see another example of the progression that three musicians can make when they release the beast that has been caged a little too long.