Gotta be tough, as a noise-rock band, to return from the wilderness after 30 years at the same time the Jesus Lizard resurface with a new LP. I mean, seriously, what are the chances?
If there’s any justice (hint: there’s usually not) then the same people wringing out their underpants over ‘Rack’ will be minded to dig a bit deeper, because this record is an absolute beaut: a weird, warped slab of heavy-riffing wrongness that picks up where the band’s recorded output ended in the middle 90s.
While this can be a risk for many reconstituted bands – you pick up downed tools and find that the world has moved on – God Bullies have, conveniently, reemerged at a time in human history that seems almost tailor-made for them: a point where stupidity, corruption and moral bankruptcy run rife. These serve as ripe targets for ‘Father’ Mike Hard, whose booming ruminations centre the band’s sound. He stutters, slurs and hectors in a manner that could just as easily suit the pulpit, the street corner or the wrong end of the bar at 2am; offering up proclamations, observations and tidbits of unasked-for advice on interlinked subjects like love, class, intoxication and fascism. Around him, things clump and swagger. The riffing seems thicker ’round he middle and haunches than I recall, though the filling-out suits them: the chundering riffs akin to those peddled by affiliates Thrall or fellow scum-dwellers like Tad and The Melvins.
Despite this heftiness, however, this isn’t a pure slugfest. There’s a strange sort of artistry about it, and a literate, obtuse sense of singular identity that variously reminds me of Oxbow, The Fall and Lungfish, both in terms of lofty preoccupations and a-uh / kind, of / uh! / oddly, punctuated / delivery-uh! that recalls someone trying desperately to communicate while swilling sick from one cheek to the other.
It’s frightening in a gluey, fever-dream sort of way but also teeters on the edge of freakish pantomime: a truly strange experience, but also a thoroughly compelling one. And, I think, probably one of my top five albums of the year.