As most probably know by now, this is the new band from the legendary Wino, best known for his time in The Obsessed, St. Vitus, and Spirit Caravan. The Hidden Hand treads a similar path of generally dark, heavy, sludgy rock, but this material is more diverse and pushes the limits of the genre far more than most any band out there. Some of the same influences are present, and Wino's tenure no doubt has something to do with the originality of this material, but there's a shitload more to this than typical blues based 70's rock riffs or Black Sabbath-esque chord progressions. "Screw the Naysayers" is a one-minute rager with a killer sense of hardcore/punk energy - fucking stellar; "Sunblood" is slower and lets the drums really have some room, with tons of great lead breaks and slightly more melodic singing; "For All the Wrong Reasons" is an instrumental that has some jam-like repetitive qualities and fuzzed out lead playing; "The Last Tree" is quite openly melodic, with some reverb over the vocals and guitars, and some fuzzy distortion driving the bass to the center; "The Hidden Hand (Theme)" is a textbook example of doom rock perfection; and so on. I haven't a gripe with the recording. The drums are perfect, the bass is there, the guitars are perfectly clear and textured, and the singing is mixed in evenly with the instruments. Even the lead tone is perfectly warm and textured, without any biting edges or anything. Very nice. The layout's pretty damn cool. Everything is printed on matte paper, with the lyrics in metallic silver, and the design on the front cover in a metallic silver foil. Lyrically the topics revolve mainly around a dismal worldview rooted in conspiracy theories (some more subtly than others), and a lot of the imagery in the booklet sort of ties into that. "I've seen the end of the world I know, The writing's on the wall, The Hidden Hand reveals the words unknown, Ancient prophecy unfolds, The Black Sea rises to the north, Stars obscured by the storm, The rigging fails, the sails are torn, Stars obscured by the storm." All in all, this is a great disc. I figured it would be good, but it definitely offers up some nice surprises that are sure to please. "Screw the Naysayers" is a fucking masterpiece.
[Meteor City]
Running time - 36:34, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Screw the Naysayers, The Last Tree, Prayer for the Night]
Meteor City - http://www.meteorcity.com
