RED FANG - Arrows

It took them five years, but Red Fang are back with this "Arrows", drawing on their past to refound their take on stoner-rock. The more "rowdy" side of their music has been scaled back to make more room for a psychedelic, aggressive spirit closer to sludge and the swampy style of bands like Melvins.

The wild chaos hasn't been abandoned, but it's put at the service of atmosphere and heaviness rather than immediacy. The pace is heavy without becoming obsessive. The result is dense, with powerful, lysergic tracks, propped up by massive distorted fuzz, hoarse vocals and a deliberately dirty, muddy production that doesn't sap the instruments' energy. This last aspect will probably divide listeners. In terms of sound, rather than the previous "Only Ghosts" from 2016, or even "Whales & Leeches" from 2013, "Arrows" should be compared to "Murder The Mountains" from 2011, though the whole thing is far less carefree.

The album's sludge side sometimes brings its doom-metal influences more sharply into focus, as on the devastating "Unreal Estate" (which recalls Black Sabbath on acid) or on the ferocious title track and "Two High" (essentially a tribute to Danzig and Baroness rolled into one). Elsewhere, as on "My Disaster", "Rabbit In Hives" or "Dr. Owl", the genre's punk-rock and hardcore influences are amplified. And then there are tracks where heavy psychedelia is especially prominent, as on the funereal "Days Collide". On one hand, this makes the album somewhat more varied and flexible, but on the other it breaks up the monolithic flow that is the trademark of stoner and sludge. It's not a stretch, then, to guess that "Arrows" will divide listeners.

Among the high points, it's also worth noting the unsettling "Anodyne": a hallucinatory explosion with a ferocious chorus and alienating guitars. "Fonzi Scheme" is an odd one too, recalling a softened-up Mastodon with added string arrangements.

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01/07/2021