Radiation4 "Wonderland" CD
[Abacus]
Not unlike their last album, "Wonderland" brings forth a mishmash of technical riffing and discordant chords as well as relatively calm material that has a jazzy edge, and flurries of various other chaos in between. I can't avoid mentioning that there still seems to be a heavy influence drawn from Mike Patton's former bands, vocally and musically, but this is certainly not a copycat act. This time around the songs are shorter, but that shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of wacky changes or diversity - and as with their last effort the short songs feel quite a bit longer because there's so much going on. But they're not simpler or more streamlined, and the fact that the songs feel twice as long as they are is not at all a negative. The vocals range from smooth crooning to quirky growls and shouts, to shrieks or completely twisted noises using effects. The real standout here is "Love Through Tapeworm Hooks", with its excellent bursts of energetic melody jumping seemingly out of nowhere and completely kicking the song into an exciting new direction. Fucking awesome... I'd love to hear them tackle that angle more frequently. I'd also like to hear more of the singing vocals, because the guy's got a great voice when he uses it. The record really picks up towards the end with more cohesive and slightly melodic tracks like "John vs. the Elephant" and "Magnolia Act I", and the monumental 15+ minute "The Prize" jumps from indie rock meets death metal meets infectious melody clashing with abrasive noise textures and an improvisational set of loops (I think?) and throbs to end the piece. The production doesn't particularly bother me at all. I love the natural drum sound (which compliments the tight and amply flashy drum performance nicely), the bass is audible, the clean guitars sound excellent, the distorted guitars aren't too caustic, and the vocals are held in check. I'd like the bass to be equally defined but perhaps a bit heavier on the low-end, thus helping to fill in the gaps, but I think that's about it. The CD comes in a slick digipack with artwork that may be misleading have you never heard the band before. The colors are bright and somewhat childlike, as are the fitting images (going along with the album title) of carousel horses, rocket ships, flying elephants, and so on. Unfortunately lyrics aren't included, just some very brief technical information, but I imagine they may be trying to keep things as mysterious as possible? I liked the lyrics on their self-released EP though, so I would've enjoyed seeing them here. I'm slightly bothered by the fact that my two favorite songs off of this disc are re-recordings of older songs from their EP, so I'm not sure what that says about where the band is heading, but I still find their music to be very interesting, and they're still one to watch... (7/10)
Running time - 39:32, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Love Through Tapeworm Hooks, John vs. the Elephant, Magnolia Act I, The Prize]
Abacus Recordings - http://www.abacusrecordings.com

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