PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Once upon a time (but not too long ago) in the west (but not too far west), four dust-covered strangers (it was obvious they were strangers in these parts, as they had French accents) wandered into a nameless town, exchanged their chainsaws for guitars and proceeded to lay waste to the local population with a series of dirty, psychedelic-infused rawk ‘n’ roll songs. An inquisitive local reporter did some digging in the dirt under his fingernails, and discovered that this particular band of hard rockin’ hombres went by the collective name of the The Texas Chainsaw Dust Lovers, and they had long since signed a pact with the devil himself to enable them to infect the world with their highly contagious brand of r’n’f’n’r.
The above western analogy is apposite, as this Parisian quartet in places lean extremely heavily on the work of Ennio Morricone in the production of their huge aural soundscapes, which could quite easily, and equally, serve as the soundtracks for a classic Clint Eastwood entrance or a Robert Rodriguez/Coen Brothers collaborative artistic bloodbath. ‘Me And The Devil’ – the band’s first full length album following two previous EPs (2012’s ‘Born Bad’ and ‘The Wolf Is Rising’ two years later) – is an album which is equally suited in the environs of mid-western bar-room brawl or a hot ‘n’ sweaty orgy in same, soaking up as it does the stoner influences of the likes of Kyuss alongside its endemic bluesy doom and raucous rockabilly-meets-mariachi streetpunk vibrations.
It’s a dense, atmospheric and vibrant album, characterized by dark, fuzzy guitar riffs and oblique, shattered rhythms which strangely homogenize into a chaotic and cathartic synthesis of sounds which sees melodramatic moments of madness cascade from all sorts of weird and unexpected angles to blend with huge, crashing walls of bludgeoning yet minimalistic compressed fury. It’s also the sort of album that initially has you reacting in a “what the absolute fuck?” mien before turning you ’round to exactly the same way of thinking after numerous plays, with its stunning musicianship combined with well-crafted songwriting and excellent performances and production.
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