Labels: Exile On Mainstream
Review by: Alex Deller
I have never been sure what ‘Beehoover’ means. Whether it has some deep relevance in their native tongue, whether it’s an imaginary device devised to sum up what they sound like or something else entirely. I could probably have a look on the internet to find out, but in all honesty I prefer that the truth be shrouded in myth and mystery. As for their music? It’s still pretty good. Their last album was both solid and interesting, and this one can be similarly praised. I think the Melvins are probably the clearest point of reference (the singer sounds like Buzz Osborne if he were a chloroformed cartoon duck), though the songs are perhaps more ambitiously constructed: big, complicated, ornate things comprised of steel ropes, heavy pulleys and large, roughly-hewn wooded cogs that barely mesh together. Like big, ugly, fire-breathing puppet heads with gnashing tombstone teeth and rolling eyes that have been erected on a lonely hillside as part of an ill-advised public art commission, perhaps. Despite being a band of just two humans they achieve all this, which is quite a feat, and ‘The Devil And His Footmen’ is tuneful, inventive and gracefully heavy all at once. True, it might lack the extra fizz to stand out as a game-changer but there’s nevertheless more than enough here to test your muscle, mettle and mind.