Puscifer : " Money Shot"

Tool used to be one of my favorite bands. A Perfect Circle was up there as well. Puscifer seemed like Maynard's stab at doing his own Massive Attack , but heavy on the jokes. The first album he mainly used his lower range and further separated himself from being the voice of Tool.  First off the album sounds great but sounds best through head phones. More focused on songs and less focused on jokes , with more of an emphasis placed on songs. Closely harmonized with female voices it sounds like this could have been written for a Perfect Circle album that never happened. Former Ministry bassist Paul Barker lays down a groove to "Agostina" is slinky and dark setting the perfect ground work for Keenan to croon over. I don't think Keenan's pipes are going to be in question, he brings the vocals up into a mellower mid-range tenor. "Grand Canyon" is pretty transcendent , but it not as dark as the previous songs so it takes a little to get use to it.

 "Simultaneous" opens with a sampled narrative. Its a less organic composition relying on the synths. Its until four minutes in that vocals comes before the over driven bass line and it turns into a real song. Title track whose video is featured below has a more 90s rock like beat to it. It's not metal or anything like Tool, in fact it's closer to something Tomahawk might do. There is some electronic weirdness that collides with it before going into the second verse. There is more atmosphere to "the Arsonist" that comes close to being a ballad. Lyrically this might be one of the better songs, the line "Your social skills resemble arson". It does build at the chorus and the synths get hard with the bass in manner that Perfect Circle might have been more eager to stomp on the distortion for. The despite the driving drums there is a kraut rock feel to the intro of "the Remedy" before dropping down to an ode to unruly house guests. Things get a shade darker with "Smoke and Mirrors". But this is not the albums most interesting song. In a similar dynamic range somewhere between the Cure and darker electronic the vocal work on "the Life of Brian" works much better.

 Dynamically "Autumn" takes a few cues from the "13th Step" album. Things have found a better balance here. We will see how this one stands the test of time, Puscifer has generally not last long in my iPod as much like his other projects is in a middle ground that I don't normally dwell on. It's either heavy or ethereal and surreal. I think since this is not a rock album that makes "Money Shot" relevant in a way I am afraid the next Tool album won't be if it ever sees the light of day. I'll round it up to a 9.