Mutoid Man : "Mutants"

 Cave-In vocalist/guitarist Stephen Brodsky, is releasing the 3rd full-length from his sludge-tinged rock band. Joining him again is Converge drummer Ben Koller, who has been on board since the project's inception. This time around High On Fire bassist Jeff Matz is in the band. There is a rock feel thanks to Brodsky's smooth vocal delivery, but ample bout of math rock in collision with punk energy. The second song employs much more speed than the opener, though both songs have their share of twists and turns. There is a doomier feel to "Broken Glass Ceiling".  They share some common ground sonically with Queens of the Stoneage in this regard. The chorus is not that hooky, though the verses have a pretty cool riff. The rule around here is cool riffs alone do not a good song make. The end of this song builds into harder snarled vocals. 

There is more of a stoner rock feel to "Siren Song".  This song might have some of the album's best melodies, though we are only four songs into the album at this point. There is a classic metal feel in how the vocals ride the guitars, without being overtly dramatic. "Graveyard Love" is more rock in its Van Halen-like boogie. "Unborn" opens with a pretty sweet grooving riff and interesting sounds, but as the song progresses these get coiled around themselves amid the jammy nature of the song. Perhaps the math just gets too complicated for their own good, as it's more effective when things break down to a tense chug. 

"Siphon" has a pretty mean chug, that was working well enough for it, until they decided to go and complicate things. It is not a deal breaker, but this could have been a headbanger all the way through. Instead, it feels more like Mastodon without the guitar solos. "Demons" rocks out like Kyuss at first before they have a spastic burst of arrangements. On one hand, they are cramming more into the three minutes they are compressing these songs into. Then on the other, the question must be asked ...does it need to be crammed in there? More importantly, does it mean they are not playing "Stonehenge" tonight? 

The answer I have come to is not get my hopes up at the onset of "Memory Hole" as they are going to eventually jerk it around into something crazy.  I begin to relax midway in when this has yet to occur. They do go off into a guitar solo, which is fine, I prefer it to take this to a crazy punk place. I think whatever conclusions you draw about their songwriting , no one is going to dispute if Ben Koller can play drums or not, in fact he establishes himself as one of the best here. The last  song "Setting Son" is almost six minutes long, so I am preparing myself for whatever they are going to throw at me, even after the two minute jammed intro. They chorus is not the album's hookiest , but works for what they are doing. They fall somewhere between 80s-themed stoner metal and prog on this one. Baroness would be a fair point of reference for the Sonic zip code they are cruising down. I will give this album a 9 and see how it grows on me. I like the direction they are heading in here and it's their most promising work to date.