For the uninitiated, Mike Patton is a guy who quite simply is an awful lot of bands. Known primarily as the enigmatic front man of the alt-metal band Faith No More and the experimental/avant-garde noise outfit Mr.Bungle, Patton has found time to fill his need to never have a day off ever. He presently fronts Peeping Tom, Fantomas, and Tomahawk while finding time to collaborate with pretty much whomever he wants and recording a solo album of Italian pop songs. Conventional isn’t exactly what you’d call his music (if that last anecdote about his solo work wasn’t a giveaway) and indeed his greatest strength has been pushing the musical envelope with his bizarre arrangements, and mis-mashed influences. The downside to this approach has been that often times Patton’s work can be intimidating to casual music listeners. That’s why a band like Tomahawk sounded like it had lots of potential. The supergroup, co-fronted by Patton and Duane Dension (guitarist of Jesus Lizard fame) combined the bizarre intensity of Mr. Bungle with the sludge noise rock of The Jesus Lizard to create what may be the most conventional sound Mike Patton’s has been involved with. At least that was the plan. After a stellar debut in 2001, the band become just another project for Mike to indulge himself. Mit Gas released in 2003 was a Zappa-influenced epic rocker and Anonymous was an album built on re-arranging traditional Native American music with guitars. Interesting? Yes. But they were both the kind of album that sounded more like solo Mike Patton efforts then a group sound reflective of the band. Thankfully, with Oddfellows, Tomahawk have returned with an album that harkens back to their strong debut and feature the group sounding more like a band and less like an indulgent ego.
The title track opener begins with a seasick, plodding guitar riff by Dension that will have more than a few fans recalling his work with The Jesus Lizard, before Patton hikes things up a notch with his trademark wail. There’s a quite, droney, claustrophobia that permeates this song untill it gets released like a firecracker in a burst of intensity. It’s a theme that sums up the sound of this album, but what really makes it stand out is the way it’s all meshes together. The more conventional, heavy guitar riffs and steady bass are paired with frantic jazz drumming, eerie vocals, and a menacing drone.Some of the tracks like “Stone Letter”, “South Paw” , and “Choke Neck” are straight up sludge noise rockers while others (“I Can Almost See Them” ,Waratorium”, “Baby Let’s Play) channel the multi-influence, bizarre intensity of Mr. Bungle. Patton delivers a winning vocal performance alternating between his sinister snarl and bellowing howl, and Dension’s guitar work adds a steady chug of heaviness. But no influence is pushed above another. It doesn’t sound like a Jesus Lizard Album or a Mike Patton album but what happens when those two mindsets combine to produce something that’s both strangely approachable and darkly different.
A-
