I still haven’t managed to work out if the album title is a reference to the passing of Stan Lee, or if it’s some sort of Satan play on words. Whichever it is, it does point to the band’s collective sense of humour.
Side 1 is given over to the epically heavy, Reptile. Spence’s vocals are split between the clean and scream, plus there is so much going on within the track musically, from straight up djentyness, to ambient interludes – awesome stuff! Blood Eagle is off the charts heavy right from the get go, with Matt Halpern’s blast athletics on the kit and some serious low end groove. If you thought that was heavy, Chvrch Bvrner takes everything to the next level. This the heaviest the band have ever been. As a complete contrast, Garden In The Bones, is a chilled out track in comparison with some very cool grooves. It’s Only Smiles is the band at their most commercial sounding, with a nice choppy riff and a really cool melody and hook. Follow Your Ghost is a slow low-end behemoth monster of a tune with some awesome clean interludes. I love the electronic grooves to Crush – quite a different vibe for the band. Sentient Glow is freakin’ epic and is my favourite track on the album – the guitar parts are insane, plus how is Matt Halpern still alive?! Satellites closes out the album and starts off quite chill and builds with some killer vocals from Spence, and ends with that repetitive chuggas.
This band just keeps getting better and they keep pushing themselves to keep the creativity flowing.
10/10 from The Grooveman.
