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Transfixiation
Barnes and Noble
Transfixiation
Current price: $15.99
Barnes and Noble
Transfixiation
Current price: $15.99
Size: CD
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For all their noise,
have been evolving subtly over the years, delivering more smudgy nuances to their noise rock with each album. This time,
and company move forward by taking the contrast between their deadpan and explosive moments to extremes; if their last album,
, was a sleek race car, then
is where they crash it just to watch it burn. With the help of drummer
, the band gets closer than ever to its live attack on "Supermaster" and "Straight," where the massive riffs cave in on themselves and
's icy-hot vocals add some sensuality to the destruction. Even for
, this is a loud album, so it takes a while to hear just how much variety is wrapped up in its noise. "We've Come So Far," which is equal parts pummeling, stylish, and sexy, may be the most quintessentially
song here, but the band delves into shoegazey pop ("What We Don't See"), punkabilly ("I'm So Clean"), and soundtrack-ready mystique ("Lower Zone") with equal confidence. They're also capable of evoking increasingly specific moods with their fine-tuned chaos: despite its brevity, "Love High" is equally claustrophobic and euphoric thanks to its woozy guitars and relentless drums. Elsewhere, the band delivers several flavors of death wishes, but whenever things threaten to become monotonous -- as they nearly do on the six-minute centerpiece "Deeper" -- they manage to find a new wrinkle on these themes. "Fill the Void" could be
' theme song as it reaffirms that few bands borrow from and update the legacies of
and
as well as they do. By the time
culminates in the fireball that is "I Will Die," it feels like
have escaped from the wreckage to deliver some of their darkest and most diverse music yet. ~ Heather Phares