Eric Saeger
The brazen title for this mostly instrumental album could be interpreted as a tolling of the bell for many genres, not dub in particular (or barely even in passing, really; if anyone should be hearing a call-out it’s the Melvins, not Satori). The songs are genre-shish-kebabs that would in less competent hands be written off as cut-paste nonsense, particularly given the mud-metal undercurrent that runs throughout. I’ve whined before about all the heavy bands out there that base everything they do on rigid, politically correct reverence for their direct ancestors; this is a shot in the arm if you’ve been feeling similar pain.
Metal this is, but dub elements – as opposed to dub music per se – pop up everywhere, including power-spray white noise, cheesebag reverb and momentary reggae riddims. These and other dub features form a coating over a constantly shifting but lucidly drawn series of exercises – Ride the Lightning-era Metallica giving way to math-metal jazzercise, Ramones 4-chord bliss, Primus-esque skullduggery, ska, Rastafarian bounce. Again, just as a caveat, this is mainly instrumental – the band trusts only Mike Patton when it comes to appropriate singers and he’s only around for one tune.
