Rebreather

Need Another Seven Astronauts (Infernal Racket)
by Brian Varney

If you’re familiar with the other Infernal Racket releases, Rebreather‘s sound will not come as much of a surprise. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on how you feel about downtuned riff sludge with screamed-hoarse vox and a Melvins rhythmic lurch pushing things along at the pace of a glacial deathride.

Actually, I may be overstating my case on the slow and sludgy thing. Two of the tunes are at least mid-tempo, and since there are only five on here (five that last over 30 minutes), I suppose that means almost half of this confounds expectation. Track two, “Joy Bang,” sounds like the bastard offspring of ’70s Pentagram and Soundgarden, a sound which I couldn’t’ve imagined until I heard it, and now I’m wondering why everything doesn’t sound like this. Before long, though, it’s back to business as usual with tracks like the Melvins worship of “Dopeladder/Speedspreader” (uh, that’s “Ropeladder,” sorry), the near 14-minute closer that thrashes like a slow-motion film of a spastic trapped in a wooden crate, trying frantically to escape. I’ve got no problem with unblinking Melvins worship, but at the same time, I can’t say I really have any reason to listen to aural proof of it, especially when there are so many fine Melvins CDs that I can reach for when the mood hits me.

Don’t get me wrong, Rebreather have a whole lot more going for them than a career as a Melvins cover band, and this is only their first full-length. Lotsa promise to be had here, and if they grind out a few more tracks like “Joy Bang” next time around, you’ll have a bunch more guys like me talking your ear off about ’em.
(PO Box 4641 Bethlehem, PA 18018)